Book 114

My Friend Rabbit, by Eric Rothman, Roaring Brook Press 2002.

 The fact that My Friend Rabbit won the Caldecott Medal made me pick the book up.  The fact that it was a funny book made me buy it. 

Sometimes my three-year-old son tries to "help" around the house.  Usually his "help" means a great deal more work for me, but the kid means well, so I praise the effort.  The rabbit in the book means well, but his efforts do not often succeed as planned.  I guess I should be grateful that my son doesn't employ an elephants, hippopotamus, alligator, rhinoceros, etc., to carry out his plans. 

Eric Rothman uses a bold outline for his "ink-block" illustrations.  It works.  The animal expressions are comical, and yet the animals are rendered in such a way it is very clear what each animal is.  Cartoony, confusing animals are one of my pet peeves in children's literature.

I don't always like books that won the Caldecott Medal.  I do very much like My Friend Rabbit, though.