BUNNY WILL NOT JUMP!

A bunny loses his bounce and needs help buoying his spirits.

Big—a blue bear—greets readers and explains the problem. Big’s friend Bunny, a mauve rabbit, will no longer jump. “He usually loves to jump,” Big explains, “but now he will not even try.” Big speculates that Bunny might be sad because of what happened when the animals had a jumping contest. Big jumped the farthest and the highest, and Bunny gave up: “I will never be able to jump like you!” Big tries offering Bunny prizes and scaring him, but nothing gets his friend bouncing again. Ultimately, Big needs readers’ help to motivate Bunny to hop. Readers are instructed to “shake the book up and down,” to “push the blue button,” and to perform other tasks. But will any of it be enough for Bunny to take the leap? In this rousing follow-up to Bunny Will Not Smile! (2019), Big and Bunny prove themselves a playful pair. With around 150 words and their variants—many of which are unique one- or two-syllable words—the text best suits emerging readers with a bit of fluency. Still, Tharp builds in additional support by holding to a maximum of six lines of text per page and providing color-coded dialogue boxes (blue for Big; mauve for Bunny). The interactivity, though brief, will have broad appeal. (This book was reviewed digitally with 9-by-12-inch double-page spreads viewed at 57.6% of actual size.)

Boundless fun.