Doug Florian is a critically-acclaimed children's book author /
illustrator best known for his poetry collections, including
Dinothesaurus, a Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year and a Junior
Library Guild Selection; Bow Wow Meow Meow, a Parents Magazine Best
Book of the Year; and many more. Florian is also a fine artist
whose paintings have been exhibited in numerous art shows, and a
former New Yorker cartoonist. He lives in Long Island, New York.
Visit him online at douglasflorian.com
Sonia Sanchez is an award-winning illustrator whose debut picture
book, Here I Am written by Patti Kim, received numerous starred
reviews and earned her a nomination for an Eisner Award in the
category of Best Painter. She is currently working on Sister Day!
by Lisa Mantchev for Paula Wiseman Books. Sonia lives with her
husband and a sleepyhead cat in a blue house near the Mediterranean
Sea.
In this title, Florian creates a rhythmic and rhyming tribute to
rabbits. Unlike the bees in his UnBEElievables: Honeybee Poems and
Paintings (S. & S., 2012), the habits in this title are imaginary,
though Sánchez's layered paintings create a world so well matched
to the poetry that readers probably won't notice. These rabbits
have habits that are "many, not few, with plenty of things that
they love to do," including waking early, leaping and creeping,
smelling flowers, and swimming for hours, ending their day the way
many storybook bunnies do, all cozied up and tucked into bed.
Florian's expert rhyming couplets make it easy for young readers to
predict the ending words even when the action is not exactly
predictable. Sánchez's free-form rabbits explore their environment
on spreads that mirror the action in the rhyme and provide a sense
of the day's rhythm. Perfect for a lap-sit, this title works well
for preschool and primary-aged storytimes and, with every rabbit
different from the next, provides plenty of details for kids to
pore over. VERDICT: A playful and appealing choice.
*School Library Journal in a STARRED REVIEW*
Florian's whimsical poem is set against a plethora, indeed a
veritable multitude, of rabbits. These bunnies come in many colors
and shapes and sizes and, frankly, occasionally resemble animals
not of the cony sort (children will be forgiven for wondering why
the occasional kangaroo is playing with the bunnies). But their
activities are not exactly bunnylike either, such as enjoying the
smell of flowers (while eating same, with a napkin tied neatly
around the neck) or building a snow bunny in winter, to say nothing
of being tucked in "with a hug and a kiss." The bouncy rhyme goes
along happily with occasional rabbity thumps, which is as it should
be. Though ostensibly about rabbits, of course, it's really about
children, and young readers and listeners will no doubt cotton on
to the iteration of their own habits right away. The colors are
soft and muted, with the occasional pop of bright red or orange.
Working with gouache and then Photoshop, Sánchez takes advantage of
the media to play with texture, juxtaposing small, scratchy lines
with soft, blurry edges to create a countryside with just as much
energy as its hopping inhabitants. The rabbits themselves are a
happy combination of colors and patterns, a bounty of domestic
bunnies let loose against the green. Small and friendly.
*Kirkus Reviews*
What do rabbits do all day? Florian (Pig Is Big on Books) offers a
playful list of pursuits, from racing across meadows to building
snow rabbits, in a jaunty book-length poem. Readers follow a herd
of rabbits from morning till night, season to season, as they
explore, play, and swim ("There's leaping and creeping and digging
up holes./ There's frightening frogs and discovering moles"). Such
full days guarantee that the rabbits are ready to settle in back at
home: "One habit of rabbits that's not to be missed.../ is saying
'goodnight' with a hug and a kiss." The energy of Florian's verse
flows from quiet to spirited and back again, in a singsong rhythm
well-suited to bedtime storytelling. In mixed-media paintings
employing fluid black lines and occasional doodlelike squiggles,
Sánchez (Here I Am) creates a sunny, verdant naturescape of wispy
grasses, trees, and rolling clouds. The closing spreads, awash in
inky darkness and featuring a drowsy rabbit crew, provide a visual
wind-down to sleep, fully in step with the text. Ages 4-8
*Publishers Weekly*
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