My Friend Rabbit By: Eric Rohmann

Bibliography
Rohmann, E. 2002. My Friend Rabbit. Brookfield, CT: Roaring Brook Press. ISBN 0761324208

Plot Summary
Mouse describes his friend Rabbit who is always trying to have fun and help, but seems get into trouble. Rabbit has gotten their plane stuck in a tree, and he recruits several animals to build a tower in order to get the plane back. Once Rabbit has his tall ladder of animals, including an elephant, a rhinoceros, and a bear among others, barely reaches the plane. Suddenly, the natural tower loses balance, and all of the animal fall, making them very angry at Rabbit. Mouse flies down and saves his friend from the grasp of the fuming animals. Mouse knows that his friend means well. As they fly, the two friends become stuck in the tree, and Rabbit starts cooking up another brilliant plan to get them saved.

Critical Analysis
The use of illustration is very important to the story. There are not many words on each page, and some pages are comprised solely of pictures. Rhomman’s illustrations have a very important job, since there are so few words. The bright colors used seem allow the images really jump out at the readers. The illustrations are excellent at presenting action and movement. While reading the story, I could almost hear what it sounded like and how it felt when the animal tower came crashing down. Rhomman does an outstanding job of showing emotions through the facial expressions of his characters. We can see the timid look of the animals when Rabbit is dragging them together for an unknown fate. The faces then look shocked and terrified as they fall. I can see how the angry eyes of the animals evoked fear in Rabbit when they were surrounding him. The wide-eyes of Rabbit tell the reader that he is very scared. Even when things are not going as planned, we see Rabbit with a determined and pleasant look on his face, showing the reader that he will never give up, much to the dismay of his friend, Mouse.

Review Excerpts
Publishers Weekly This gentle lesson in patience and loyalty, balanced on the back of a hilarious set of illustrations, will leave young readers clamoring for repeat readings
School Library Journal The double-page, hand-colored relief prints with heavy black outlines are magnificent, and children will enjoy the comically expressive pictures of the animals before and after their attempt to extract the plane. The text is minimal; it's the illustrations that are the draw here.

Connections
This book could be used as a wonderful tool in teaching patience to young children. They can think of a friend, family member, or pet that sometimes gets into trouble, even though they mean well. This activity could go one step higher by asking students to explain the reasons why they still love this person or pet, despite their faults.
Additional recommended books:
*A Kitten Tale by Eric Rohmann ISBN 9780517709153
*Kitten's First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes ISBN 0060588284