WHERE DID BUNNY GO?

In this sweet, old-fashioned sequel to Will You Be My Friend? (2000), Bunny and Bird join Chipmunk and Squirrel in a snowy game of hide-and-seek. Bird finds the others, but Bunny hides so well, and for so long, that Bird begins to wonder if Bunny has run away. “ ‘I would never run away,’ responds Bunny, leaping out of a hollow log, ‘I am your friend.’ ” Children alert enough to notice that Bunny’s log is visible in nearly every one of Tafuri’s spacious, mildly colored winter scenes will have a good idea where he is all along. Carping critics may wonder how these creatures could run about in the snow without leaving tracks, but the tale’s underlying warmth of tone is as enjoyable as the appealingly depicted wildlife. And the short, simply phrased, large-type text won’t intimidate newer readers, either. (Picture book. 3-6)