Rabbit and Bear: Attack of the Snack
This is the third book about the irascible Rabbit and level-headed Bear. In this story, they meet - or are attacked by!- Owl who crash lands near them. Rabbit is predictably outraged at the arrival of this stranger- particularly when he remembers that some owls eat rabbits!
Keen to find a snack, Bear leaves Rabbit to it- something she later regrets as things quickly get out of hand- but everything works out well in the end.
Tolerance and understanding are at the heart of this book. In the middle of all the humour- and this is a very funny book- the story shows the very serious and disturbing issues of how fear and mass hysteria can whip people up to commit unreasonable and unjustified actions. Rabbit becomes increasingly paranoid and his exaggerations increasingly extreme, yet no one but Bear challenges him. As Bear says...
'I don't think you won the argument...I think you just shouted the loudest.'
Being able to laugh at Rabbit's wild accusations makes it easier to start discussions about tolerance and acceptance, about challenging stereotypes - and about the fact that we all make mistakes. No one- not even Rabbit- is perfect and we all need to acknowledge when we get things wrong.
The book is very entertaining with plenty of toilet humour- possibly a bit too much for my liking- but with the usual educational slant! The things I now know about poo!
The illustrations are a joy as in each of these stories. Warm tones highlight some of the pictures and there are lots of them throughout the book. Another winner!
Rabbit and Bear: Attack of the Snack
Hodder Children's ISBN: 978-1444938173