Please don't eat me

PreS-Gr 1--An innocuous bunny rabbit accidentally burrows into a bear's lawn and pleads not to be eaten. Bear explains that he is quite hungry. So Bunny orders him a pizza. Then Bear wants dessert. So they share a milkshake. Then Bear wants to show off his bunny-eating prowess to his friends. So Bunny obligingly crawls into his mouth as Bear parades in front of some other bears. On and on it goes, until finally Bunny cannot bargain or put up with the nonsense anymore and just resigns itself to being eaten, even helpfully crawling into a salad bowl to aid Bear's digestion. But it turns out that Bear doesn't actually want to eat Bunny; he just wants a friend, and fortunately, he's found one. A story in the spirit of Laura Numeroff's If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, this tale relies on the enduring humor of a persistent and demanding character and a patient (until a certain point) companion. The typeface is modeled on the artist's own handwriting and appears in speech bubbles over the two animals' heads. The plucky and resourceful Bunny is forced to constantly come up with ways to circumvent Bear's demanding hunger. Climo's digitally created illustrations give the cartoon creatures very subtly expressive faces while the text does the heavy lifting, and the simple forest background lets the comedic interactions really shine. VERDICT Hand to fans of Numeroff's many books or read this for a raucous and silly preschool storytime.--Laken Hottle, Providence Community Library

A bunny negotiates with a bear to avoid becoming lunch.Burrowing along happily through the soil, a tiny white rabbit is stopped short by the beauty of a daisy. Unfortunately, a bear steps out from behind a tree at precisely the same moment. There's no mistaking the bunny's disappointment at the timing of the situation: "Aw, nuts." The bear is hungry, so the quick-thinking rabbit proposes ordering a pizza. The pair share a pie, but before the bunny can leave, Bear muses, "It just doesn't feel like a meal without dessert." Will the bunny be dessert?! No. A chuckleworthy page turn reveals the two sharing a milkshake with giant twisty straws. Bear has many other ways of delaying the bunny's departure until finally, the bunny loses patience: "Fine. That's it! Just eat me already!" Flopped on a bed of greens, the bunny presents itself as a meal. But Bear has another optionperhaps they could be friends instead. The dumpy little rabbit mirrors Bear's rotund frame; both state their arguments with deadpan precision. However, via tiny adjustments in body language, Climo masterfully includes a ton of expression behind the two protagonists' tiny dotted eyes. Minimalist cartoon backgrounds keep the focus on the developing relationship.Droll humor that's sure to elicit guffaws. (Picture book. 4-8) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.