The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes (Sandpiper Books) [Paperback]

Dubose Heyward (Author), Marjorie Flack (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 5 and up | Grade Level: K and up | Series: Sandpiper Books

The country bunny attains the exalted position of Easter Bunny in spite of her responsibilities as the mother of twenty-one children.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"It is difficult to believe that this very modern feminist tale was originally written in 1939. A gem of a fantasy in which kindness and cleverness win out over size and brawn."--Learning Magazine

About the Author

 

Marjorie Flack (1897-1958) was an author and illustrator of many children's books, including The Story About Ping and The Boats on the River, which received a Caldecott Honor in 1947.

 

Du Bose Heyward (1885-1940) was the author of several books, including the critically acclaimed novel Porgy, which was the basis for Gershwin's Porgy and Bess.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 5 and up
  
• Paperback: 48 pages
• Publisher: Sandpiper (April 3, 1974)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0395185572
• ISBN-13: 978-0395185575
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 8 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (74 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #39,094 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #16 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Children's Books > People & Places > Holidays & Festivals > Easter
  • #20 in Books > Children's Books > Holidays & Celebrations > Easter

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

65 of 65 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars powerful and true, December 5, 2001

By 

Wm19 (Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes (Hardcover)

This is the most powerful book I have ever read.

The boastful jackrabbits, the aristocratic snobby rabbits, and the male rabbits who laugh when little country bunny tells them that she will grow up to become to be one of the revered Easter Bunnies - are all proven wrong.

Little country bunny grows up, has children, and through the pure goodness of her heart and common sense catches the eye of the Wise Old Grandfather bunny.

Ta-da! He asks her to be an Easter Bunny! After trials and tribulations, her determination, caring, and perseverence carry her through, and she is exalted beyond her dreams by Grandfather Bunny. She is wise, and nice, and very humble.

I love this story because is beautifully written and teaches that those with good and kind hearts, who work hard and persevere, will triumph. Being rich, big, high-born, young, male, does not matter where it really counts - all that matters is what is in your heart.

I first read this as a minority child growing up in a rural community. Now I am a professional in a large city. This book made a difference for me.

41 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Through a Six-Year-Old's Mind, January 6, 2000

By 

Beverly Johnson (Big Sky Country Montana) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes (Hardcover)

I was born in 1940. This book was read to me once in first grade. I remembered not only the story, but the beautiful illustrations. Twenty years later I called my first grade teacher to ask for the book title so I could read it to my children. "The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes," she had remembered. As I read this to my children, I saw my life had been influenced by this wonderful story. Dubose Heyward wrote one book in 1939. He wrote to tell young females that they can grow up to follow their dreams and have a family. That they can get past social expectations, and past the people who aren't cheering them on, and that we all have a special destiny if we trust ourselves enough to persist against the odds which then sets the example for our children to do the same.

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A surprisingly modernist book from 1939, July 19, 2002

By 

Catherine S. Vodrey (East Liverpool, Ohio United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes (Sandpiper Books) (Paperback)

DuBose Heyward's 1939 classic, "The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes," is surprisingly modernist given the time period in which it was written. When so much of the world was (and is) focused on heroes and men in general, what a gentle and lovely surprise to come across a book which celebrates the rabbit--a lady rabbit!--who becomes the Easter bunny.

With elements of Aesop peeping in and out of the text (not the least of which includes the fable of the tortoise and the hare), Heyward manages to make a rabbit with 21 little children sound not only sane, but brilliant. The Country Bunny (or Little Cottontail Mother, as she is called throughout) gives her children each small chores to keep them busy, contribute to the overall quality of their shared family life, and make them feel like valued members of the group. They grow up to be sweet, cheerful, polite, and industrious bunnies, and the Country Bunny uses their fine breeding to great effect to achieve an audition for the role of Easter Bunny.

Heyward's text is inimitably enriched by the sweet pictures of artist Marjorie Flack. The bunnies are plush and adorable, the scenery idyllic, and the colors bright as Technicolor. This is a trip down Memory Lane, even for those who didn't grow up with the book, and a future memory-maker for any child who loves Easter and Easter bunnies.