10 Hungry Rabbits

January 16, 2012
Lobel smoothly weaves together a counting and color lesson in this trim book that follows 10 rabbits as they find vegetables for their mother’s soup. The color of each rabbit’s vegetable matches his or her clothing, as well as the corresponding numerals and name of each color. On the way up to 10, the fourth rabbit “picked four red tomatoes,” while the seventh rabbit “spotted seven brown mushrooms.” After Papa Rabbit slices the medley of colorful vegetables, and Mama swirls the soup on the stove, “The Rabbit family sat down to bowls of delicious vegetable soup. Yum! The happy rabbits were hungry no more.” Lobel’s gouache and watercolor portraits, rendered in her familiar folk art style, recall impressionist paintings—each soup component, writ large, takes up most of its page, while the rabbits scour the garden in panels below. Ages 1–up.

January 1, 2012
Lobel, no stranger to gardening--or concept books--serves up a feast once again. It's dinnertime, and Mama Rabbit doesn't have anything to put in her soup pot. Ten little rabbits whine, "We are very, very, VERY HUNGRY!" Papa Rabbit suggests they hop to the garden to find good things to eat. Each rabbit brings back a fruit or vegetable (or fungus) for the pot, counting from one to 10. Each rabbit also chooses a particular color of food, appropriately matching his or her brightly patterned frock. The scrumptious garden finds are boldly placed front and center, perfect for tiny fingers to point and count. Vignettes across the bottom show the rabbits digging and gathering. Besides the obvious rabbit-in-the-garden connection, Lobel's leafy borders and beady-eyed bunnies are reminiscent of Beatrix Potter. Never one to miss a detail, Lobel delicately shades the whisper-thin onion skins and every bump on the potato and also carefully lines up 12 little bowls in the background cupboard (assuring Mama and Papa are accounted for, of course). With gardens cropping up in schools and farmers' markets on every corner, these hungry bunnies are teaching more than just numbers and colors. Good, basic food to feed the youngest of minds. (Picture book. 2-5)

(COPYRIGHT (2012) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

January 1, 2012

PreS-When the rabbits wail that they are hungry, Papa Rabbit suggests that they head to the garden. What they find there-cabbages, peppers, tomatoes, carrots, peas, etc.-provides contents for Mama's empty pot. As each rabbit selects an item ("the second rabbit pulled up TWO WHITE onions," "the sixth rabbit yanked up SIX ORANGE carrots"), viewers will quickly discover that the colors of the vegetables match the colors of the bunnies' outfits. While some may question the eighth bunny's choice of blueberries for vegetable soup, it does fill out the color scheme-and, who knows, perhaps the bunnies enjoyed them for dessert! Lobel's vibrant colors punch up this sweet and simple tale, providing a multiple learning package for very young children.-Barbara Elleman, Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, Amherst, MA

Copyright 2012 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.