Bunns Rabbit
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
For anyone who has ever felt different, Academy Award winner Alan Barillaro tells the deeply moving tale of a brave rabbit who sets out on a quest to save her home and family—no matter what it takes. When Bunns is born with small but perfectly functional rabbit ears, the warren is abuzz with auguries. Surely such short ears spell bad luck for the community. Sheltered in her family’s burrow, Bunns listens to the rhythm of her mother’s heartbeat—Thump, thump, thump—a song of home and belonging. Her father explains that unlike a rabbit’s words or thumping feet, a heartsong cannot lie. But the unknown world of the meadow, the sounds and smells above, call to Bunns. When at last she’s ready to brave the staring and whispering of neighbors who fear her because she’s different, and the disapproving elders who threaten to banish her family, she finds a world beyond the warren where myths and riddles, magic voyages, and important new friends await. Can the “bad omen bunny” follow her own heartsong to a destiny—a wish—meant just for her? Academy Award–winning director, writer, and animator Alan Barillaro’s graceful storytelling, warm illustrations, and dramatic graphic panels weave light and dark into a seamless tapestry to enchant children and adults alike.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this dramatic illustrated fable by Barillaro (Where the Water Takes Us), a young rabbit singled out for being different finds notoriety for her bravery following an arduous, mysterious journey. When baby bunny Bunns is born with "two curiously short ears," whispered and thumped disapproval ("It's a bad omen") throughout the warren leads the rabbit elders to banish Bunns's family from the meadow. Determined to change this fate and armed only with her gift for understanding what's inside another creature's heart—their heartsong—Bunns follows a riddle-spouting monarch butterfly into the dangerous Great Forest in search of the Spirit Fox, who can grant wishes. Along the way, Bunns encounters a tiny hummingbird and a gruff loon, each with stories of their own to share about the mythical spirit. Together, the trio of traveling companions navigate danger at nearly every turn. Barillaro skillfully weaves immediate prose and realistic illustrations to depict Bunns's grand voyage via renderings of nighttime and underground shadows, gauzy sky and snowfall, fantastical shape-shifting forms, animals and countryside, and comics-style panels, each element distinguished by hues ranging from poppy to sepia. Ages 8–12.
