Review by Booklist Review
Rabbits sniff, chew, and scratch on the busy endpapers, and inside, this lively book celebrates their curiosity and energy. Florian's rhyming text, sometimes floating across the page and at other times set in word bubbles, never feels confined, and neither do Sánchez's illustrations. For the rabbits, There's leaping and creeping and digging up holes / frightening frogs and discovering moles as well as building snowrabbits and hitching a ride on Pop (He has the best hop). But, as with human children, the best part of a rabbit's day is a bedtime hug and a good-night kiss. Sánchez chooses warm browns and greens to illustrate most scenes until bedtime, when everything turns soft gray and blue, and a fuzzy, indistinguishable moon becomes a bright, warm light. The rabbits, outlined in black, are all shapes, sizes, and colors, and their world is as lively as its inhabitants. Pair with Jane Yolen's How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight? (1999) for another book that celebrates animals and bedtime.--Ching, Edie Copyright 2016 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
What do rabbits do all day? Florian (Pig Is Big on Books) offers a playful list of pursuits, from racing across meadows to building snow rabbits, in a jaunty book-length poem. Readers follow a herd of rabbits from morning till night, season to season, as they explore, play, and swim ("There's leaping and creeping and digging up holes./ There's frightening frogs and discovering moles"). Such full days guarantee that the rabbits are ready to settle in back at home: "One habit of rabbits that's not to be missed.../ is saying `goodnight' with a hug and a kiss." The energy of Florian's verse flows from quiet to spirited and back again, in a singsong rhythm well-suited to bedtime storytelling. In mixed-media paintings employing fluid black lines and occasional doodlelike squiggles, Sánchez (Here I Am) creates a sunny, verdant naturescape of wispy grasses, trees, and rolling clouds. The closing spreads, awash in inky darkness and featuring a drowsy rabbit crew, provide a visual wind-down to sleep, fully in step with the text. Ages 4-8. Author's agent: Rubin Pfeffer, Rubin Pfeffer Content. Illustrator's agent: Teresa Kietlinski, Prospect Agency. (Feb.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 2-In this title, Florian creates a rhythmic and rhyming tribute to rabbits. Unlike the bees in his UnBEElievables: Honeybee Poems and Paintings (S. & S., 2012), the habits in this title are imaginary, though Sánchez's layered paintings create a world so well matched to the poetry that readers probably won't notice. These rabbits have habits that are "many, not few, with plenty of things that they love to do," including waking early, leaping and creeping, smelling flowers, and swimming for hours, ending their day the way many storybook bunnies do, all cozied up and tucked into bed. Florian's expert rhyming couplets make it easy for young readers to predict the ending words even when the action is not exactly predictable. Sánchez's free-form rabbits explore their environment on spreads that mirror the action in the rhyme and provide a sense of the day's rhythm. Perfect for a lap-sit, this title works well for preschool and primary-aged storytimes and, with every rabbit different from the next, provides plenty of details for kids to pore over. VERDICT A playful and appealing choice.-Lisa Lehmuller, Paul Cuffee Maritime Charter School, Providence, RI © Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Florian's whimsical poem is set against a plethora, indeed a veritable multitude, of rabbits. These bunnies come in many colors and shapes and sizes and, frankly, occasionally resemble animals not of the cony sort (children will be forgiven for wondering why the occasional kangaroo is playing with the bunnies). But their activities are not exactly bunnylike either, such as enjoying the smell of flowers (while eating same, with a napkin tied neatly around the neck) or building a snow bunny in winter, to say nothing of being tucked in "with a hug and a kiss." The bouncy rhyme goes along happily with occasional rabbity thumps, which is as it should be. Though ostensibly about rabbits, of course, it's really about children, and young readers and listeners will no doubt cotton on to the iteration of their own habits right away. The colors are soft and muted, with the occasional pop of bright red or orange. Working with gouache and then Photoshop, Snchez takes advantage of the media to play with texture, juxtaposing small, scratchy lines with soft, blurry edges to create a countryside with just as much energy as its hopping inhabitants. The rabbits themselves are a happy combination of colors and patterns, a bounty of domestic bunnies let loose against the green. Small and friendly. (Picture book. 4-7) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
