Budgee Budgee Cottontail
PreSchool-Grade 2?Mora wrote and illustrated this story in verse in 1936; its publication is a reminder of another era in picture books. A young rabbit in overalls walks off, despite his parents warnings, to seek his fortune in the "WIDE WIDE WORLD." After many adventures involving various friendly and unpleasant anthropomorphic animals, Budgee Budgee Cottontail makes his way to the Wild West where he meets Pinto Fleetfoot and Happy Pancho Burro and learns how to throw a lasso. Journeying on the back of a musk-ox, he skis on to the North Pole and visits Santa's workshop. Santa deposits him down the chimney of his own house, and the narrative ends with BB Cottontail snuggled safe in his own bed on Christmas Eve. The bold composition and expressiveness of the pen-and-ink and watercolor artwork demonstrate Mora's cartooning skill, but ethnic stereotyping is embarrassingly apparent in drawings and text depicting Native Americans and Mexicans. Otherwise, quaint in appearance and expression, this is a book for those interested in the history of children's literature or in Mora's work.?Linda Wicher, Highland Park Public Library, ILCopyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.