Bunny Dreams

Starred review from October 5, 2015
McCarty’s bunnies float like small balloons, and this visit to their world drifts lightly from thought to thought. “What do bunnies know?” he writes. “Bunnies know to eat their vegetables—although they do not know their names.” The bunnies are shown gnawing at leafy lettuces and carrots, though their thoughts seem miles away. The farmer’s dog appears, a big, furry blimp who “only wants to play,” and the bunnies drift into underground burrows “where bunnies are safe.” They dream they are bees. They float amid fat pencils, crayons, and pieces of notebook paper. They hold up pieces of paper with their names written carefully on them: Brenda, Bobby, Brian. Writing is not presented as something they must learn, or should know how to do; it is the stuff of dreams, a treasure chest. Some picture books teach or moralize, others entertain, but McCarty (First Snow) does something different. He knows that making sense of the adult world is hard work, and he offers the very young a retreat that’s cozy, sleepy, and free of logic and structure. Ages 4–8. Agency: Gotham Group.

October 15, 2015
Rabbits have group dreams--very peculiar ones. At first, this animal tale appears fairly traditional: bunnies hop around a flowery field among bees and butterflies, hunkering down to eat carrots, radishes, and lettuce. "What do bunnies know?" They know to run from the farmer's dog "even if he only wants to play," and here things begin to feel uncanny. The enormous dog resembles the bunnies more than it does any canine, possessing tiny feet but virtually no legs, which highlights the fact that these bunnies, too, lack legs for their wee feet. They flee the friendly dog like a synchronized fleeing team, all in the same position, seeming to skim above the ground, which is solid white background. Diving into burrows, they again glide through air without touching soil. A chicken inexplicably joins them. When they sleep, their group dreams involve bees, butterflies, and a large dog--understandably--but also ABCs, 123s, and school supplies, which seem to arise from nowhere. A section about writing their names, with one bunny denying that his name is Bobby (who said it was?), is as peculiar as real dreams. McCarty shades his animals with smooth, fine lines, and their round eyes are almost electric. However, figures seem static even when moving, and the general lack of groundedness and gravity is more surreal than satisfying. Arbitrary and lacking closure, this is more like a real dream than a sleepy-time tale. (Picture book. 4-7)

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November 1, 2015

PreS-K-McCarty's velvety and diffuse pencil strokes always infuse something of the surreal in his drowsy little creatures. Here the effect is as charming as it is lulling. Twenty-five little bunnies-plus one inexplicable chicken-greet readers on the endpapers, one for each letter of the alphabet. The letters are shown several times throughout the story, but McCarty offers much more than a simple concept book. "What do bunnies know?" asks the narrator. They know to eat their vegetables, to run from the farmer's dog, and to find a hiding place "safe to sleep and dream," but they do not know their names. The adorably lumpy but somewhat realistic bunnies-plus that oddball chicken-fall asleep while the text asks readers to imagine "Where...bunnies go when they dream." It is here that McCarty's dozing lagomorphs sprout wings to take to the air with bees and butterflies, becoming increasingly anthropomorphized. In their dreams, bunnies know their names, their A-B-Cs, and their 1-2-3s. Fanciful dream bunnies float in midair, surrounded by school supplies, toys, and lined paper with their "B" names written clearly (Brenda, Bobby, Brian, Bridget, etc.). One buck-toothed bun protests ("I am a bunny, and my name is not Bobby!"), and the sleepers awaken to a moonlit night, though traces of their unconscious wanderings are present-the moon looks like a giant bunny and one of the little rabbits still wears her dreamworld getup. The warm palette of yellow ochre, muted lavender, and mossy green, surrounded by clean white space, allows young readers to focus on the details-the serene expressions on the faces of the animals; the soothing, if bizarre, image of them flying with wings adorned with letters of the alphabet; the assortment of playthings and objects hovering around them. Readers who demand logic from their tales will find this a head-scratcher (what's the deal with that chicken?), but those who embrace the magical unreality of that land between awake and asleep will surrender to this gentle Jungian adventure. VERDICT This surreal charmer is just the thing to encourage little heads to nod off to bunny-filled dreamland.-Kiera Parrott, School Library Journal

Copyright 2015 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 15, 2015
Preschool-K This sweetly surreal bedtime story takes readers into an intriguing imaginary world. There is nothing strange at the beginning of the story when an unseen narrator invites us to look at all the bunnies hopping around. The scene shows cheerful-looking rabbits in a field with butterflies, bees, and flowers. The realism continues, with rabbits eating vegetables, avoiding a dog, and going into underground tunnels for safety and rest. A chicken joins the bunnies in the burrow, the first indicator that something unusual may be happening, and then the dreams begin. Striped, winged rabbits fly with the bees and butterflies (and the chicken). Letters and numbers appear; then pencils, crayons, and paper; and finally names. It is as if the jumbled thoughts of a kindergartner are being expressed through dreaming rabbits. The bunnies awaken to the light of a magical, shining moon, and the story is over. Adults may be puzzled, but the softly mysterious images and unexpected combinations will make perfect sense to young children.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2017
"Where do bunnies go when they dream?" The chubby critters snuggle deep in their burrow to dream of animals, letters, numbers, and more. Meticulous, softly rendered line drawings set against stark white backgrounds show the bunnies growing increasingly, intriguingly anthropomorphized as they dream. This secret life of bunnies draws readers toward imagination, concept learning, and, of course, bedtime.

(Copyright 2017 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)