Thursday 24 May 2012

The Rhyming Rabbit by Julia Donaldson and Lydia Monks (Macmillan Children's Books)














Here's the second of the rabbity books that found their way into our library stack this week. Poor Lydia Monks must've gone slightly rabbit-crazy last year as both this book and Babbit were published in the same year.

Lydia Monks has teamed up with Julia ("Gruffalo") Donaldson many times and most of their books together are rather special.

Rhyming Rabbit is merely OK though, slightly disappointing because it's fairly difficult to like the central character (a rabbit who weaves everything he sees into a little ditty, much to the annoyance of his rabbity chums).

It takes a special kind of sheep to find wisdom and amusement in the rabbit's rhyming ways.

Donaldson brings her rhyming expertise into play in this book, and Lydia Monks' illustrations are lovely as ever but this book just didn't click at all with Charlotte, despite the lure of those lovely sparkly textured glitter pages.

Hmm, strike two for the rabbits then. Oh dear.

Charlotte's best bit: The rhyming rabbit nearly being eaten by a fox

Daddy's favourite bit: As above, sorry but I think it would've been a better book if the fox had enjoyed an early rabbit meal :)

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars


Note to self: Avoid rabbits in the book selection next week!