Customer Reviews

The Little Rabbit

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Written by Judy Dunn, with photography done by Phoebe and Tristan Dunn (Judy's parents - Local to New Canaan, CT). This wonderful series of books, including The Little Lamb and The Little Duck, are great starter books for children. I personally knew Phoebe Dunn and can honestly say that her love and compassion for children is reflected in the quality of these books.

My son loves these books to this day - almost 20 years later.

-Jeff C. (the blond haired boy riding the bicycle at the end of the book).

I love this book very much, cute rabbit with a lot of photographs. Wonderful

My 2 year old son loves all of the Phoebe/Judy Dunn books. The Little Rabbit is his favorite; however, I am partial to The Little Lamb, which was my own favorite from childhood. Each story contains plentiful photographs per page of the animals engaging in common, everday scenarios, such as eating, bathing, napping, exploring, etc. They often get into a little minor mischief, as well. I think the familiarity and predictability of what the animals do are what make these books so appealing to my little one. Though these books are wordier than the typical book recommended for the very young, the stories are so simple and realistic, making them easy to follow, while encouraging and challenging the attention span. I consider each of the Dunn books a valuable part of our son's book collection.

My daughter is now 29 but this was her favorite book as a child, it was nice to find it recently and give it to her for her 29th birthday. Once my baby always my baby!

I bought this book for doing the activities in the book, "5 in a Row." We haven't used it, but I've read it, and I think it is a cute story.

This book has pictures from what looks like the 1970s and so that's a little off-putting, but my kids did enjoy it overall. We got the puppy one and the pig one in the series from the library but they didn't like those as much. While this is in the Before Five in a Row series, it was not one of my kids favorites. They enjoy the occassional movie/show that's not animated but the books w/pictures seems more of a boring medium to them and doesn't hold their attention as well....especially b/c this book is longer than some of the other ones in the series of BFIAR

Cute story for the kiddies, but the ending where Buttercup has her babies makes me go "hmmmm". Obviously her litter is a result from her encounter with the wild rabbit during her excursion while her owner, Sarah, falls asleep. But all the text says, regarding the two lagomorphs' meeting each other is: "The rabbits stared at each other for a very long time. Then they hopped away." Gee, no wonder rabbits multiply so much: a male and female just stare at one another and soon there's a batch of babies on the way! ;) I wonder if this concept frightened young girls not to look at boys when they grew up!

This is one of my all time favorite books! A must read to all little ones!

This is a cute storybook with photos of a little white rabbit who lives with Sarah and her family. Buttercup the bunny grows up and has bunnies of her own, and Sarah gives them away to her friends, so they can have rabbits, too.

Truthfully, I didn't see much story or lesson here. I also found it disturbing that the animal was received as an Easter gift, like a chocolate marshmallow. (Is there anyone who does not know that this is wildly inappropriate?)

The photographs are cute, but not spectacular. I recommend passing on this one, because there is far better to be had elsewhere that is more appealing and educational. (Sorry, Sarah, you really are cute!)

Having a photographic story of a girl and a bunny living together sounds like a good idea, but I'm not sure that the actual outcome serves any particular purpose.

This book documents the adventures of a girl named Sarah and her pet rabbit, Buttercup. Buttercup wanders off one day when Sarah falls asleep in the field near their home, and gets into some trouble. Then, later in the book, Buttercup has babies of her own, and Sarah gives them away to her friends.

The narrative is kind of rambling to me; there's no big plot that moves the book from beginning to end. Rather, it seems like words have been chosen to take advantage of a bunch of (admittedly very cute) pictures of bunnies. Also, since it's grounded in reality, the book lacks any whimsy or magical element to inspire wonder in a child.

On the other hand, the book doesn't really do a very good job of portraying what it takes to be a good pet owner. It is true that Sarah feeds and waters her bunny every day, but other than that, there are more bad lessons than good ones about bunny ownership. Sarah receives the bunny in her Easter basket, and most animal car groups will tell you that bunny-giving around Easter-time is a big problem for the little critters. Then, Sarah falls asleep when she's supposed to be supervising Buttercup, and there aren't any consequences to this action. In real life, that would probably be the end of Buttercup, sad to say. Finally, Sarah allows Buttercup to breed and have more babies, which she gives away to all of her friends. This is another common irresponsible action that is shown to work out just fine for all involved.

It's not that I think that this book is evil or is going to irredeemably corrupt the children who read it. I just think that it fails to entertain, and then it fails to educate. Great books seem to do both, but this book does neither. In the end, we're left with some cute bunny pictures and not much else.