HOW TO BE A BIGGER BUNNY
by Florence Minor ; illustrated by Wendell Minor
Book-smarts help Tickles the bunny save the day in this latest collaboration from the Minors.
Tickles is the smallest and least adventurous in her family of five brown rabbits. When she awakens to see that her four bigger siblings have left their cozy, tree-hollow home for the day, she feels left out but resigns herself to reading her new book, How to Be a Bigger Bunny. The red volume includes stories about an intrepid rabbit who climbs a tall tree and acts like a pirate, and another, called “How to Think Your Way out of Tricky Places,” has “good advice about nibbling.” Lo and behold, all these stories end up having practical applications when Tickles’ brothers and sisters get trapped in a hollow log. She rescues them, has happy dreams of her heroism that night, and rises the next day to their newfound respect and a standing invitation to join them on future adventures. Throughout, gouache illustrations pay homage in palette, style, and detail to “legends of the past” Beatrix Potter, Leonard Weisgard, and Garth Williams, to whom Wendell Minor dedicates the book. The soft visual texture, in particular, is appealing and well befits the gentle narrative with its encouraging message to “never give up.”
A happy ending for a little bunny whose reading helps her do big things.
(Picture book. 3-6)