A Boy and His Bunny

January 31, 2005
In this amiable frippery about a bad hare day, a boy wakes up "with a bunny on his head.... 'Good morning,' said Fred, the bunny on his head." The boy, drawn in a casual scrawl against tints of minimal blues and yellows, smiles up at his white, long-eared companion. The boy's mother gently observes, "You know, I hate to tell you, but it's got to be said.../ You have a great big bunny
on your head!" Fred, sensing disapproval, insists this is no hindrance: "Books can be read with a bunny on your head./ Peanut butter can be spread with a bunny on your head," he says, as artwork depicts the boy performing everyday tasks. The child takes up Fred's logic in a repetitive fashion that recalls Green Eggs and Ham
. "You could build a tool shed with a bunny on your head./ You could drive a moped with a bunny on your head," he surmises, and a sketch shows the bunny balancing nimbly on a construction hat and crash helmet. The mother relents ("I take back what I said. You look pretty cool with that bunny on your head"), convinced that the situation is absurd but livable. Debut author Bryan's silly rhymes and first-time children's book artist Murphy's effortless doodles imply that readers might invent more bunny-on-your-head activities, while the parent-child conversation implies that kid couture need not be cause for alarm. Ages 3-6.