WHY SO SAD, BROWN RABBIT?

Cain's story of imprinting gone wrong opens with Brown Rabbit in self-pitying mode: ``I wish I could hop, skip, and jump, too, but I'm too old to play games,'' he moans. Gray Mouse counsels him to get a family, and off troops Brown Rabbit to find a mate. When he settles in for a nap on a pile of hay, he accidentally hatches three eggs sequestered there. ``Mama!'' the new ducklings quack. Brown Rabbit's efforts to find their mother fail; the ducks flew south the day before. To cheer up the sad ducklings, alone in the world, just as he is, Brown Rabbit teaches them to hop, skip, and jump—and his family is born. It is curious, and unexplored, why the other barnyard animals are so diffident, but the message of shared responsibility is sweetly understated, while the tender, benignly baffled characters of Kelly's watercolor illustrations are quite effective. (Picture book. 3-7)