Product Description

In Blue Rabbit and Friends he creates a world for Blue Rabbit with items children will delight in recognizing, such as a wooden building-block cave and a Frisbee pond.

Blue Rabbit is unhappy with his cave house and decides to search for a new place to live. Along the way he meets up with Bear, Goose, and Dog, who would like new homes too. Clever Blue Rabbit discovers that through a little creative switching, all of his new friends can have the house of their dreams. But once they are settled, where will Blue Rabbit live?

"A master of the linoleum block print"-- School Library Journal

"Has a stylish appeal rarely found in books for the very young."-- The Horn Book

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2218750 in Books
• Published on: 2000-02-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 32 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Wormell's (An Alphabet of Animals) familiar chunky lino block prints grace this diverting tale of a quartet of animals in search of home sweet home. Blue Rabbit emerges from his cave one day, decides he doesn't really like it ("too large and the forest was too dark") and sets out to seek more congenial quarters. Along the way, he meets Bear in a pool, a goose named Rover who lives in a dog house and Dog, who lives in a hole in the side of a hill. None of them is satisfied with his living situation ("It's too dry and stuffy for me, and it smells like old bones," says the goose), and of course Blue Rabbit gets the bright idea to trade. The reshuffling places each in his appropriate spot--while the hero decides that he wants adventure and takes off on his bicycle to "see the world." With its pared-down cast of characters and classic story line capped with a fresh twist, Wormell's tale is perfectly suited to preschoolers. Their sharp eyes may well detect that the setting holds a few surprises as well--blocks form Blue Rabbit's "cave," for instance, and Dog's "hill" looks suspiciously like a rumpled blanket. Ages 3-7. (Feb.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
PreSchool-Unhappy with his cave in the forest, Blue Rabbit sets out to find a new home. Along the way, he meets a group of animals that live in odd places: a bear lives in a pool, a goose resides in a doghouse, and a dog takes up residence in a hole in the side of a hill. They begin to trade homes until they find one that suits them, until only Blue Rabbit is left. Rather than move into the hole in the side of the hill, however, he hops on his bike and opts for a life of adventure. The clean layout and judicious use of white space highlight the linoleum-block illustrations, which appear on the right-hand side of each spread. The illustrations reveal that the anthropomorphized animals are actually toys. The setting, too, is delightfully toylike, from Blue Rabbit's cave (made from blocks) to the dog's hole in the "hill covered in daisies" (a green blanket with a daisy print). The characters' serious expressions perfectly complement the text and the clean lines and bright colors add just the right note of levity. The challenge of matching animals to more appropriate abodes will delight preschoolers, as will the surprise ending. A simple treat from an author who knows how children's minds work.
Kathleen M. Kelly MacMillan, Carroll County Public Library, Eldersburg, MD
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
With deceptive simplicity, Wormell plots a brief, repetitively structured tale that seems comfortably familiar right up to the surprise end. Uneasy living in a dark cave, Blue Rabbit sets out to find a new home. Along the way, he encounters a similarly unhappy teddy bear living in a dish of water, a goose who gladly abandons a smelly little house with "Rover" emblazoned over the door, and a puppy eager to trade in his cramped hillside burrow. Wormell, known for his linocuts, here uses thick, dark lines and modulated paints to depict the animals, placing them within a playroom landscape in which the cave is made of blocks and the burrow from a crumpled blanket. Blue Rabbit matches his companions one by one to appropriate homes, but instead of taking the burrow as expected, he hops on a bike and pedals down the road. The open ending makes a refreshing alternative to the homey closure of such tales as Megan McDonald's Is This a House for Hermit Crab? (1990). John Peters

Customer Reviews

Beautiful, clever, fun children's book
My children and I all enjoyed this book for a number of reasons. At first glance, it's a classic children's tale, simply told and beautifully illustrated (with gorgeous block prints in eye-catching colors.) We all quickly realized that things were not as they seemed (and were described in the book), which gave the book a delightful "inside joke" appeal that even my youngest (age 3) child understood. Finally, the author avoids the obvious, pat ending with a wonderful last-page surprise. We have read this book over and over and would recommend it to anyone!

Wonderful book!
We picked this book randomly at the library and have since bought it because it is so wonderful. The pictures are arresting and artistic while still very appealing to the young child. The story is cute and amusing and is about sharing and problem solving. My daughter is 3 and she absolutely loves this book and has memorized the whole thing. I recommend it for any child from age 2 on up.