Move over Beatrix Potter because Little Rabbit is one cute bunny. I just finished Little Rabbit Goes to School (Peachtree, 2004) and really for me, it’s all about the illustrations. The story’s cute, yes, but this is a book I’d get for the illustrations.
The Little Rabbit books tell about typical joys and fears of childhood: the excitement of a birthday, getting lost at “Rabbit World,” not wanting to share, the desire to be “big.” Little Rabbit Goes to School begins, “When Little Rabbit woke up, he knew that it was a special day. Today was his first day of school.”
But it’s the illustrations that enchant. Little Rabbit with his thirteen or so siblings in their snug rabbit house at the foot of a giant tree. And Little Rabbit is pretty much irresistible in his little jumpsuit complete with hat shaped like bunny ears. He wears them 24/7, and it’s a good thing he does. Otherwise we’d get him mixed up with all the other bunnies hopping around on these pages. Just as mischievous and charming as his literary ancestor, Little Rabbit is a 21st century Peter Rabbit, and every bit as winsome.
(And winsome is the perfect word here. [win-suh m] adj.: sweetly or innocently charming; winning; engaging.)
