Rabbit's Bad Habits by Julian Gough and Jim Field: review by Kelly McKain

Rabbit's Bad Habits is the first in an exuberant and charming series charting the adventures of two unlikely friends. Rabbit and Bear's friendship is especially unlikely as, early in this book, Rabbit steals all Bear's food from her cave!

Neil Gaiman calls it: 'The sort of story that makes you want to send your children to bed early, so you can read it to them.' I completely agree, and the reason this book got chosen for a review was exactly that - we had so much fun reading it aloud, cackling at the startling, spot-on humour and falling in love with kind Bear and grumpy Rabbit that I want to make sure other parents know about the fun this series can bring to reading time!



Plot-wise, when good-natured Bear accidentally wakes up early and finds it's still winter, and that all her food has been stolen, she sets about making a snowman. Soon irascible Rabbit has joined her and is haughtily explaining a few things - like gravity for example, on which he is an expert, because 'Gravity nearly killed my Grandfather.' Bear also learns that rabbits have to eat their own poo and digest it twice to get all the nutrients out. My children and I all learnt this at the same time, to much hilarity, as you can imagine. Freddie, 7, says: 'I liked it when rabbit pooed and then ate the poo. It was really funny.' (Cue graphic demonstration and much giggling).

Julian Gough's text is quirky and lively with a distinctive style, and Jim Field's illustrations are a joy - the character's faces are so expressive and there's such dynamism in the drawing that it felt as though they might leap off the page. Together these two epic talents deliver a story that's both hilarious and very moving, and I'm thrilled to have the Rabbit and Bear books on our shelves at home!

Hodder Children's Books
ISBN 978-1-444-92931-7



Kelly McKain and Jon Stuart's new picture book series, The Woollies, is published by Oxford University Press. The first two titles are available now.

Return to REVIEWS HOMEPAGE

Rabbit & Bear Rabbit's Bad Habits, written by Julian Gough and illustrated by Jim Field, reviewed by Pippa Goodhart

This is a beautifully produced chunky little book of the kind that comes between picture books and chapter books.  It has big clear writing, but would probably need to be read out loud to most children of, say, four to seven sort of age.  As with the all the best of these kinds of stories, this one revolves very much around character.  Two main characters.  Bear and Rabbit.

Bear is a delightfully modest, innocent, kind and simple soul.  And, hooray, she's female!  What is the ratio of female to male bears in children's fiction, I wonder?  Heavily more male, I'd say.  But this is an exception.  And Rabbit?  He's very different from Bear.  Grumpy, knowledgeable, and with an unkind streak that needs a kind bear to charm out of him.

Oh, and there's a baddie.  Look at this for an enjoyably mean wolf that needs a comeuppance!

And this for part two of that very comeuppance!  

The humour in this story is of the sort that small child will find particularly hilarious.  The eating of poos (by a rabbit, and rabbits do do that) is discussed in some depth.  But there is a deeper layer to this story too. Dear Bear decides that Rabbit is a friend because Rabbit gave him something ... even though that 'something' was a rotten black carrot.  And she's proven to be right about that.  

Writing, illustration, and design are all a joy in this action-packed little story.  Recommended.

Return to REVIEWS HOMEPAGE