My Friend Rabbit by Eric Rohmann was the Caldecott Medal winner in 2003. The story would likely appeal to children between the ages of four and eight due to few words and vivid illustrations. The story is a charming tale about an awkward friendship. At the beginning of the story, Mouse lets us know that trouble follows his friend Rabbit. Rabbit can be found on the first page of the story holding Mouse’s plane. Due to Rabbit’s incredible strength, Mouse’s airplane ends up in a tree. Mouse is distraught about losing his plane and longingly stares at it. On impulse, Rabbit says that he will fix the problem. For the next eight pages, Rabbit finds several animal friends to help. He lifts each of them up, but none of them are able to reach the plane. He orders the animals to stand on one another, and the elephant, the rhinoceros, the deer, the duck, the bear, the hippopotamus, the crocodile, Mouse, Rabbit and the squirrel are standing on top of each other in that order. When this doesn’t work, Rabbit held the squirrel and the squirrel held Mouse. Regretfully, the entire pyramid tumbled down, and all of these animals were mad at Rabbit. Mouse managed to reach the plane and hold on. He begins to pilot the plane and retrieves Rabbit. Again, the plane is plunged into a tree because Rabbit is blocking Mouse’s vision with a hug. Mouse reiterates that wherever Rabbit goes, trouble follows, and one can not hold back the smile at the end of the book because Rabbit has an idea to save the day.
I enjoyed the story and its simplicity, but as I mentioned earlier, the book is for extremely young children. The story is uplifting and says a lot about friendship in its very few pages. Relationships with friends are not perfect, and there is a lot of give and take. Sometimes people mean well, and that is not the way that it seems. Mouse loves Rabbit despite his indiscretions, and I think that aside from the entertainment value, it is a heartwarming gesture. Rohmann’s illustrations are bright and explanatory. I especially enjoy that the pictures span two pages. The pictures are large, and I think that this is an excellent book to read aloud to a group of children.
Rabbit reminds me of my sister. Like him, she means well. When I was in the 10th grade, my final project for a Science class was an egg drop. After our thoughts on how to protect the egg were carried out, she demanded that she climb on top of the roof to test the project. Needless to say my egg never broke, but my sister’s ankle did when she fell. Though she is eight years older than me, she needs my supervision when performing her stunts.
Eric Rohmann also wrote and illustrated The Cinder-Eyed Cats, and Time Flies (also a Caldecott Honor book), and he illustrated The Prairie Train written by Antoine O’ Flatharta. Time Flies is a wordless picture book, which is a daring endeavor for any author in my opinion. This book, similar to My Friend Rabbit, must be examined extensively to make sense of all of the illustrations. Sometimes, fewer words create more meaning. Time Flies is about an adventurous bird that lands itself in a museum where dinosaurs come to life.
This book teaches children problem solving skills and that where there is a will there is a way. Also, children learn that people and relationships are not perfect, yet we love each other anyway. I learned that few words can have a very deep meaning, especially in a children’s book.
References
Rohmann, E. (2002). My friend Rabbit. Brookfield: Roaring Book Press.
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