posted on 08 Aug 2024

Rabbit on the Rampage by Lorna Watson, illustrated by Rikin Parekh

The exuberant, slightly manic looking rabbit shown on the front cover of this picture book immediately appealed to my eight and six year old grandsons who were reminded of a much loved favourite, ‘Little Rabbit Foo-Foo’ by Michael Rosen, illustrated by Arthur Robins. Like many children of a similar age, they are also big fans of comics and funny books so they were keen to read it with me.

Rabbit is deeply attached to a special curly-wurly carrot that she takes with her everywhere. Very sensibly, she decides to keep it safely in her coat when she goes to swim club. We giggled over the double page illustration that showed several animals wearing rubber rings ( including an octopus) swimming cheerily in the pool. An elephant and a cat don’t look so enthusiastic as they look on nervously from the pool side. After the lesson Rabbit is devastated to find that her beloved carrot has disappeared, possibly been stolen! Wise Swim Coach Manatee advises that she might find it if she retraces her steps and this plan sets the shape of the quest that follows.

Rabbit remembers having lunch with Badger so sets off on her motorbike with Cat in the sidecar to investigate. She is very quick to assume that he is a thief and so karate- kicks the door in. We agreed with the startled Badger who suggested that she could have rung the bell first! A staring stand off follows with a suggestion to ‘have a yummy, scrummy garden pea instead’. Rabbit is suitably furious:

‘Rabbit clenched her paws

with outrage.

Rabbit’s tail began to shake’.

We waited with bated breath to see what she was going to do on the turn of the page and were rewarded with her shown squashing it flat with her bottom. Still looking very angry, she sets off to accuse Madame Mouse the Ballet teacher. My eight year old suggested that she just needed ‘to stop being so dramatic, calm down and chill out’ which is a real life adult refrain that will be familiar to many children.

Of course in storybook world this would make for a very boring story! And so she rampages angrily on with the author and illustrator using repetitive refrains and page layouts to make it predictable - perfectly designed for reading aloud. She goes on to shout at the mild looking Hedgehog in the bookshop who dares to offer an aubergine as a suggested replacement for the carrot. We laughed out loud when angry Rabbit flushes it down the toilet! You will be pleased to know that she eventually finds the missing carrot in an unexpected place and so needs to find a way to apologise for her outrageous behaviour.

We strongly recommend this very funny story published by Walker Books which I look forward to sharing with other children. It should be available from your local independent bookshop who will be happy to order if not already on the shelves.

 

Karen Argent

August 2024