The Gingerbread Rabbit (first paperback printing).

Randall Jarrell

ISBN 10: 0020439008 / ISBN 13: 9780020439004

Published by Collier Books, 1972

About this Item

Nice condition. First printing of the 1972 Collier books paperback (full number line), 95c cover price. Cover has light wear, clean, no marks or writing, pages a little tanned due to age; binding seem sound but due to age the binding glue may be a little weak so book should be used gently. ** We are a small family business selling fine new and pre-owned books online since 1999. We provide professional service and individual attention to your order, daily shipments, and sturdy packaging.

Seller Inventory # 69432

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Gingerbread Rabbit (first paperback printing).
• Publisher: Collier Books
• Publication Date: 1972
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0020439008
• ISBN 13: 9780020439004
• Binding: Paperback
• Illustrator: Garth Williams
• Edition: 1st.
• Condition: Collectable, very good

About this title

Synopsis

Once upon a time there was a mother . . . who loved her daughter so much, she wanted to make her a wonderful surprise. So she mixed up some dough and cut out a beautiful gingerbread rabbit. But she got the surprise when the rabbit jumped up, ran out the door, and escaped into the forest! Follow the gingerbread rabbit and the mother as they run through the woods finding adventure, new friends, and the best surprises of all.

Review

Mary's mother has a surprise for her--a delicious gingerbread rabbit. But the real surprises start when this cookie comes to life! The raisin-eyed rabbit, still uncooked on the counter, bemoans his fate to the paring knife, mixing bowl, and rolling pin, when they warn him that nothing has ever escaped from the kitchen without being eaten. When the rabbit spies Mary's mother, just back from the grocery store, a "giant" with "dozens of tremendous shining white teeth the size of a grizzly bear's," he realizes he hasn't a chance. Much to the mother's surprise, her flat, doughy creation makes a run for it! But she wants the gingerbread rabbit for her daughter so much, she races right after him. Garth Williams, illustrator of Charlotte's Web and The Cricket in Times Square captures the chase perfectly with his magical pen-and-ink sketches. Readers will follow breathlessly as the gingerbread rabbit narrowly escapes the guiles of a wily fox, and is finally rescued by an actual rabbit and his wife, who take him into their home to live happily ever after eating lettuce, carrots, and watercress.

This gentle story of a mother's fervent love for her only daughter, and the comical, suspenseful adventures of her rabbit cookie is carefully spun in Jarrell's flawless, slightly tongue-in-cheek prose. A jauntier inanimate rabbit-comes-to-life story than Margery Williams's The Velveteen Rabbit, and a more complex tale than The Gingerbread Man, The Gingerbread Rabbit is a classic read-aloud that youngsters will clamor for again and again. (Ages 5 and older) --Karin Snelson