The Story of the Easter Bunny
PreSchool-Grade 2 - An elderly couple's petite white rabbit observes, assists, then eventually takes over the task of weaving baskets, coloring eggs, concocting candy, and delivering the gifts to village children. When the man and woman become too old to continue their labors, the bunny moves the operation to the woods, where he works inside a hollow tree, assisted by other rabbit friends. Tegen's text teems with sensory details: the eggs were "...the color of daffodils and of soft new leaves and of robins' eggs and of violets." Lambert's watercolors make merry with spring's pastels, providing detailed images of the cozy cottage kitchen as well as the rabbit den. However, some children may be concerned when the rabbit preserves the tasks' secrecy by leaving the humans when they are too frail to carry on. Nevertheless, this visually splendid story with folktale rhythms makes a good choice for holiday sharing.- Gay Lynn Van Vleck, Henrico County Library, Glen Allen, VACopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.