Review Bunny

Both Lulu and I were very excited to have spotted this book about a very distinguished rabbit called Edward.  As soon as we spotted the book on Amazon we bought it right away.

Initially we bought the kindle edition and then after having read the book we bought paperbacks of all of the other books by Kate DiCamillo – so you can guess that we liked it a lot.  It is much easier to read the kindle paperwhite than a paperback in the darkness of our hutch and much easier to turn the pages with my little paws.

Now I don’t want to say too much about the story, because I don’t want to spoil it for all of the other bunnies out there that are going to read the book (Edward Tulane hates to be called a bunny, but we rather like it!).  Edward is a special china rabbit, an exquisite work of art and quite exceptional.  Although I am a rabbit that can read and talk, so consider myself to be quite exceptional also.

This is me, reading Edward Tulane and looking at the illustration by Bagram Ibatoulline

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane

I’ve read this book three times, having read the reviews on Amazon I decided to read it myself first.  There are quite a number of warnings that Edwards journey is quite traumatic and that sensitive children or emotional rabbits may find the story distressing.

Initially I had planned to read the book in small chunks, so that I could do some running around or do some binkies, eat some hay and perhaps do a little digging, but once I started reading, I could not stop.

At times the book is very sad, but also very magical and Edward makes some wonderful friends and has a truly Miraculous Journey that any rabbit would be envious of.  The saddest part of the book for me was the end, simply because I wanted to hear more tales of Edwards adventures.  But all good things must come to an end!

Second reading, to my hutch-mate Lulu.

After seeing that I was so engrossed in the book, Lulu was very eager to hear the story, as she cannot read as well as me, I read it out loud to her.  Now Lulu is a very emotionally sensitive rabbit and did cry quite a lot in the sad parts of the story, but she too loved the book – and that is a major compliment, she is such a bossy moody rabbit that for her to like anything other than food is something very special, she has very high standards!

I read it to her in chunks to make the book last longer, stopping every night when the different parts of Edwards journey were unfolding.

Third reading, to the children that I live with

I live with a thirteen year old boy and an 11 year old girl – they are getting a bit old for bedtime stories now so they were not that keen to hear the story of Edward Tulane at first, but I insisted that they must hear the story and from the first chapter to the last they were hooked! I’d highly recommend reading this book to your children.  Perhaps if they are very young some parts of the book might make them sad, but overall this is a happy and magical story and sometimes life isn’t all sunshine and rainbows.

Of course if you don’t have a talking rabbit to read this book to them then you can read it yourself, but I personally think a book about a rabbit should be read by a rabbit, but that is just my opinion.

The beautiful Illustrations are by Bagram Ibatoulline and the children paid particular attention to these illustrations and studied them quite carefully.

Conclusion

This is one of the most magical and captivating books that I have ever read, it is quite short and you will probably get through it in a couple of hours, but the emotions that the book leaves you with will remain for a long time.  I wish I had read this book long ago.  Thank you to Kate DiCamillo for writing the book.  This is a story about hope and never giving up on love.