The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes by DuBose Heyward and illustrated by Marjorie Flack tells the story of the five Easter bunnies. Yes, five. If you haven’t read the story, you probably didn’t know there were five.
At any rate, a little country girl bunny decided that she wanted to grow up to be an Easter bunny. But all the fancy white bunnies and big Jack-rabbits with their long legs laughed at her. ”The little girl Cottontail grew up to be a young lady Cottontail. And by and by she had a husband and then one day, much to her surprise there were twenty-one Cottontail babies to take care of.” And all the fancy white rabbits and big Jack-rabbits laugh at her again and say, “Only a country rabbit would go and have all those babies. Now take care of them and leave Easter eggs to great big men bunnies like us.” I kid you not. That is a direct quote from the book.
Well, those baby bunnies grew and their Cottontail mama taught two of them to sweep, two to make beds, two to cook, two to wash dishes, two to wash linens, two to sew and mend, two to sing and two to dance to entertain the others while they worked, two to garden, and two to paint, and the last little bunny she made keeper of her chair, and he pulled out the chair for her at supper.
Eventually the time came again to pick another Easter bunny. Little Cottontail Mother and her family travelled to the Palace of Easter Eggs to see Old Grandfather pick the newest Easter bunny. And naturally Old Grandfather picked Cottontail Mother because she was wise, kind, and swift, and the kids would have no trouble taking care of things while she was gone (don’t ask me where Papa bunny was–the story doesn’t say a word about him).
The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes was first published in 1939 Houghton Mifflin not long after women got the vote, but well before the Women’s Movement of the 60′s. Little Cottontail Bunny is the original supermom. She breaks through the glass ceiling of male Easter bunnies, proves her bravery and gets fancy gold shoes to boot. And she does it all before her little baby bunnies wake up.
In honor of Halloween, check out Mostly Monsterly by Tammi Sauer and illustratecd by Scott Magoon (Simon & Schuster, 2010). Monster Bernadette is “mostly monsterly. She lurche[s], she growl[s], she cause[s] mayhem of all kinds.” Bernadette also has a soft side which gets her into big trouble when she goes to monster school.
