My Friend Rabbit [Paperback]

Eric Rohmann (Author, Illustrator)

Book Description

Release date: March 6, 2007 | Age Range: 4 - 8 years

When Mouse lets his best friend, Rabbit, play with his brand-new airplane, trouble isn't far behind. From Caldecott Honor award winner Eric Rohmann comes a brand-new picture book about friends and toys and trouble, illustrated in robust, expressive prints.

 

My Friend Rabbit is the winner of the 2003 Caldecott Medal.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Product Description

When Mouse lets his best friend, Rabbit, play with his brand-new airplane, trouble isn't far behind.

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A Look Inside My Friend Rabbit
(Click on Images to Enlarge)

"My friend Rabbit means well, but..."	"Not to worry, Mouse, I've got an idea."
The downside of a good idea	"...wherever he goes, trouble follows"

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

From Publishers Weekly

My friend Rabbit means well, begins the mouse narrator. But whatever he does, wherever he goes, trouble follows. Once Rabbit pitches Mouse's airplane into a tree, Rohmann tells most of the story through bold, expressive relief prints, a dramatic departure for the illustrator of The Cinder-Eyed Cats and other more painterly works. Rabbit might be a little too impulsive, but he has big ideas and plenty of energy. Rohmann pictures the pint-size, long-eared fellow recruiting an elephant, a rhinoceros and other large animals, and coaching them to stand one on top of another, like living building blocks, in order to retrieve Mouse's plane. Readers must tilt the book vertically to view the climactic spread: a tall, narrow portrait of a stack of very annoyed animals sitting on each other's backs as Rabbit holds Squirrel up toward the stuck airplane. The next spread anticipates trouble, as four duckling onlookers scurry frantically; the following scene shows the living ladder upended, with lots of flying feathers and scrabbling limbs. Somehow, in the tumult, the airplane comes free, and Mouse, aloft again, forgives his friend... even as the closing spread implies more trouble to follow. This gentle lesson in patience and loyalty, balanced on the back of a hilarious set of illustrations, will leave young readers clamoring for repeat readings. Ages 4-8.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Age Range: 4 - 8 years
  
• Paperback: 32 pages
• Publisher: Square Fish; Reissue edition (March 6, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 031236752X
• ISBN-13: 978-0312367527
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 10.5 x 0.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (51 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #71,253 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Eric Rohmann was born in Riverside, Illinois in 1957. He grew up in Downers Grove, a suburb of Chicago. As a boy, Eric played Little League baseball, read comic books, collected rocks and minerals, insects, leaves, and animal skulls.

Eric has his BS in Art and an MS in Studio Art from Illinois State University, and an MFA in Printmaking/Fine Bookmaking from Arizona State University. He also studied Anthropology and Biology. Eric taught printmaking, painting, and fine bookmaking at Belvoir Terrace in Massachusettes and introductory drawing, fine bookmaking, and printmaking at St. Olaf College in Minnesota.

Eric has created book jackets for a number of novels, including His Dark Materials, by Philip Pullman. He won a Caldecott Honor Book award for Time Flies, and a Caldecott Medal award for My Friend Rabbit. Eric has written four children's books: My Friend Rabbit, The Cinder-Eyed Cats, Pumpkinhead, and A Kitten's Tale. He recently illustrated Lois Lowry's Bless This Mouse and an old Scottish poem, Last Song. Look for Bone Dog out in the latter part of 2011.

Eric currently resides in a suburb of Chicago.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 36 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Rabbit has a cunning plan September 30, 2004

By E. R. Bird HALL OF FAMETOP 500 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover

There are some books in the world that you can flip through in the bookstore and get a pretty good idea of the plot and characters. Then there are books like "My Friend Rabbit". Roughly a year ago I wanted to know what all the "My Friend Rabbit" fuss was about. I mean, this book was a 2003 Caldecott Award winner after all. I wanted to see why. So I went to my local independent bookstore and flipped through it. I flipped and flipped and was baffled by the heaping helpfuls of praise it had received. My haphazard flipping didn't reveal anything particularly interesting or original in the story. Fast forward a year and I've finally taken the time to sit down and read, "My Friend Rabbit" in its entirety (a process which took me all of 93 seconds). Suddenly I understood why it was so beloved. Though an incredibly simple plot, story, and set of characters, "My Friend Rabbit" is a remarkably beautiful tale of two woodland creatures and their plane related misadventures. It's simple in words and complex in visuals.

As Mouse points out from the beginning, "My friend Rabbit means well. But whatever he does, wherever he goes, trouble follows". That's Mouse's nice way of saying that Rabbit is an all-time screw-up. In this particular outing, Rabbit has managed to get Mouse's brand new airplane (in which Mouse fits like a furry little Lindbergh) stuck in a tree sans Mouse. Quick as a wink Rabbit's off with a, "Not to worry, Mouse. I've got an idea!" thrown over his shoulder. Before you know it he's tugged, dragged, carried, and cajoled a wide variety of animals to stand on one another under the offending tree. Mouse is just able to reach the wing of his plane when the entire group comes crashing to the ground. Rabbit is in big big trouble. Fortunately the plane is now free and two go happily off into the sky. That is, until Rabbit steers them a tad off course. The last words in the book are a too familiar, "Not to worry, Mouse. I've got an idea". Readers can guess what'll happen next.

Ho hum, you say. I've seen stories of this ilk before. I won't contest that. Maybe you've seen a dozen similarly ilked picture books in your day. Maybe you're an old hat in the clumsy-rabbit-gets-in-and-out-of-scrapes genre of storytelling. This might all be the case. But you have never, I say I say, NEVER seen anything like this colorful concoction of animalistic cajolery. First of all, the book in and of itself is beautiful to look at. Filled with hand-colored relief prints spanning a rainbow of different colors, the story looks like a series of cheery rounded woodblock images more than anything else. Rohmann's characters are beautifully expressive and original. Each animal has its own personality and individual traits. From the somewhat perturbed goose to the blissfully unaware hippo, they all act, look, and react in different ways. Rohmann isn't afraid to make use of every inch of page space either. Sometimes an image on one page will be of just rabbit pulling on a trunk. The next two page spread is then completely filled with the elephant as Rabbit hops away for more animalia. Pictures will suddenly becomes vertical as suits the story (as when they're standing on one another to reach the tree). There are even pictures that display nothing more than impending doom. When the animals fall from their tower you get a brief image of the baby geese that didn't participate in the Babel-like construction running for cover, just before the creatures hit. And visual humor has never been so beautifully realized as in this tale. There is a shot of every single animal (save mouse and the still smiling hippo) glaring at Rabbit with undisguised malice after their unintentional plummet. Rabbit, who up until this time has had eyes that were simple black dots, looks straight at the viewer with the whites of his eyes very very visible. It's one of those pictures that says a million different things and could only have been drawn in the last ten years. After all, how many picture books can you name off the top of your head where the hero stares at the viewer in fear?

Not that it really matters, but I fully support the fact that "My Friend Rabbit" won all the awards that it did. Books of its nature are rarities. This tale is funny, touching, beautiful, and engagingly constructed. It is colorful. It is well-thought out. It is a classic in the purest sense of the word. It is a wonderful adventure, a touching tale, and a great great book. I praise it with all the praising strength with which I am endowed. Buy it immediately.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Kids love it! February 8, 2003

By A Customer

Format:Hardcover

Although I was a little surprised that this book was named the Caldecott winner this year, the first time I read it to a class, I understood why. Kindergartners and first graders absolutely LOVE it! They laughed out loud and covered their eyes as the animals tumbled to the ground. I enjoy it more every time I share it with a group of students. It's first rate!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Not to Worry Mouse I Have a Review June 12, 2004

By A. Maynard

Format:Hardcover

This was in the nightly reading stack for weeks and returns frequently. The book is short on words and requires you to look at the details before the whole story unfolds. We have had fun as we notice different details the more we read this book. My little one is about to turn 3 and may be on the verge of outgrowing this book. I'll be a little sad when she does.