View source for Bunny by Peter Lynas and Clare Lindley

{{infobox1
|title=Bunny
|author=Peter Lynas and Clare Lindley
|reviewer=Sue Magee
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=A delightful story and exquisitely simple artwork combine to make a book which will please young and old.
|rating=4
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|pages=34
|publisher=Made-Up Books
|date=March 2018
|isbn=978-0993340338
|website=http://www.peterlynas.com/
|cover=0993340334
|aznuk=0993340334
|aznus=0993340334
}}

You might have seen Bunny on the beach where he lived.  Like many beaches it was full of sand and Bunny didn't like sand, not least because it got between his toes and ''scratched''.  What he really liked was juicy green grass.  All the other rabbits lived on the top of the cliff, where Bunny could see a lot of tasty-looking grass.  But the cliff was very high.

The next day Bunny looked around for some grass to eat, but when he found some, it had sand in it.  He could still see the green grass on the top of the cliff, but it was still just as high.  The next day Bunny's toes were nipped by a crab.  The day after that the tide came in and Bunny got his toes wet.  He didn't like that at all.  And still the grass on the top of the cliff was there to tantalise him, so Bunny decided that he would climb the cliff.  By the time he got to the top it was dark but when Bunny danced a little jig of pleasure at having got to the top of the cliff he stumbled over a stone and fell...

... not just to the beach but deep into the sea.

Whale lived in the sea, where he swam all day and all night.  Occasionally he would come up to the surface to breathe, but found that his blowhole was blocked.  (I wonder how that could have happened?)  He panicked and tossed and turned and finally took a really deep breath and blew really hard.  Bunny flew up, and up and up - and then fell down and landed with a crash - on the grass at the top of the cliff.  Fortunately he'd learned his lesson and this time he didn't jump for joy.

I did smile at this story.  It took Bunny a few days to decide that he had to do something about where he lived, but once he made up his mind he persevered until he got to the top of the cliff.  Cliffs are not the best of places to do a jig, particularly in the dark and Bunny learned this lesson the hard way.  There are a couple of neat lessons for the reader too: you need to persevere to get what you want and don't be put off if there are setbacks on the way.

The language of the book is delightfully simple and I love the way that the text is set in different places on the page to suggest the height of the cliff or the difficulty that Bunny has in climbing the cliff face.  The text is complemented well by Clare Lindley's illustrations.  They're done in a way that makes you think that you could do that - but somehow you never can.  There's a limited palette of colours but they all work very well together.

The book benefits from a second reading, too.  Despite the illustrations appearing to be very simple, you'll spot what you missed on the first reading.  Look carefully at the cover and on one of the early inside pages and you'll see that Whale had been around for a while.  You'll get just a hint of the rabbits who live on the top of the cliff.  You might even spot a butterfly or two...  There's a lot more to this book than you might suspect and I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy to the Bookbag.

We've seen quite a few of Peter Lynas's books and been delighted by [[:Category:Peter Lynas|them all]].


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[[Category:Peter Lynas]] [[Category:Clare Lindley]]