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32 pp.
| Kids Can |
October, 2020 |
TradeISBN 978-1-5253-0490-3$18.99
|
EbookISBN 978-1-5253-0573-3$9.99
(1)
PS
Translated by Yvette Ghione.
"It's the start of a new day at 3 Maple Street. But not just any day--it's Little Rabbit's birthday!" Dubuc's straightforward text chronicles the hustle and bustle of the Rabbit family's preparations for Little Rabbit's party in their first-floor apartment. Youngsters can follow the Rabbits' activities in the clever cutaway illustration of the entire building on every spread, which means viewers are also treated to a peek inside six other apartments (plus an attic) and myriad intersecting visual story lines. Little Hedgehog is looking forward to his papa returning from a trip; Mr. Bear wakes up sick; Little Fox's family welcomes a new baby; the Cat family moves in on the third floor; and the Mouse triplets are causing chaos in their bedroom right below the apartment of Mr. Owl, who is having trouble sleeping as a result. But this delightful French import's detailed illustrations don't stop there--look for the bird family in a tree, a ghost in the attic, a house gnome, and more, including several fairy-tale references (most notably, a girl with yellow hair who climbs a ladder into the Fox family's apartment for a snack and a snooze while they're at the hospital--sound familiar?). Best-suited to one-on-one sharing or solitary perusal to catch all the minute action, this Richard Scarry–esque book, with its expressive and appealingly drawn animal characters, begs to be read multiple times.
Reviewer: Cynthia K. Ritter
| Horn Book Magazine Issue:
January, 2021