SuitabookRabbityness
Jo Empson
- Reading
- Read the pictures as carefully as the spare words, pausing when the colour disappears and returns. Let the child choose what Rabbit’s disappearance means, and follow their response rather than supplying a fixed answer.
- Themes
- Being different through creativity: Rabbit enjoys ordinary rabbit activities but also painting, music and other activities described as ‘unrabbity’. He shares these interests and fills the woods with colour and sound. The book presents this favourably.
- Living with absence: After Rabbit disappears, his friends feel sad, find his creative materials and use them while remembering him. The book links grief with remembrance and continuing creative life, while leaving the nature of the loss open.
- Worth knowing
- Rabbit’s disappearance and the other rabbits’ sadness may merit attention, particularly if a child is already thinking about loss. The story does not state whether Rabbit has died or gone away.