Warm at Home

Home sick with a cold, Bunny plays with or eats everything in his room.

PreSchool-K-- Bunny is sick enough to stay inside on a rainy day, but not too sick to moan about nothing to do. Of course an active child will find something to do even if it is marching around singing "Nothing to do." The colored-pencil illustrations are warm, fuzzy, and appealing, saved from being too cute by Bunny's liveliness. He is the embodiment of any young child looking for amusement. He makes imaginative use of whatever comes to hand. He eats the vegetables in his window box, builds a block tower, and makes a tent with his blanket, pretending to be outdoors with a starry night overhead. Not a necessary purchase, but pleasant. --Karen James, Louisville Free Public Library, KY
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Not just warm, but completely cozy, describes this saga of a baby bunny stuck at home with the sniffles. Bunny greets the news of his confinement with a garden-variety whine--"But there's nothing to do inside"--and proceeds to plow headlong into activity for several hours. After an imaginary game of baseball featuring a turnip (which he later devours), and drawing pictures with homemade beet crayons (which also prove tasty), Bunny takes a short snooze and dreams of--what else?--carrots. Vegetables are so much on this lapin's mind that even his sneezes have an endearing, alliterative property: "cabbage-cabbage-cabbage- chooo !"; leekity-leekity- chooo !" An especially endearing tone, in fact, permeates all of Schotter's tale, which along the way celebrates a particularly active imagination and a quietly accepting mother. Goldman's softly colored pencil drawings depict these domestic adventures with a special understanding for preschool perspectives; her use of long-haired lop-eared bunnies makes a nice change from the everyday pink and white bunnies that seem to proliferate in kids' books like, well, like rabbits. From jacket illustration to final scene, a total charmer. Ages 5-8.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.