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March-April 2009 Selected Content
Good Stuff - Rebecca Rupp
Peter Rabbit and Friends
First, book-wise, there were rabbits.
In fact, first of all, for a lot of our babies, is (or was) Dorothy Kunhardt's furry and pattable Pat the Bunny (Golden Books, 2001), originally published in 1940, and now the best-selling interactive book of all time. ("Judy can pat the bunny. Can YOU pat the bunny?") It makes for a great baby present, featuring six other appealing activities along with bunny-patting. Then there's Margaret Wise Brown's enchanting Goodnight Moon (HarperFestival, 1991), first published in 1947 and still going strong, with its sleepy little bunny in the great green room; Margery Williams's The Velveteen Rabbit (HarperCollins, 1999), which dates to 1922, the magical tale of how much-loved toys become real; and Sam McBratney's more recent Guess How Much I Love You? (Candlewick, 2008) in which Little Nutbrown Hare and his much larger parent vie to see who loves the other best.
As classic rabbit tales go, however, the best-known of all is surely Beatrix Potter's The Tale of Peter Rabbit (available in many editions), which first appeared in 1902, and since has sold over 150 million copies in 35 different languages. If you have not yet acquired one of these, my only advice is that when you do, get an edition with the original Potter illustrations; for reasons that pass understanding, a scattering of publishers have produced Peters illustrated by other people. They're disastrous and don't you fall for it.
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Peter Rabbit has a wonderful Web site now, The World of Beatrix Potter: Peter Rabbit at http://www.peterrabbit.com, which features an excellent account of the life and work of Beatrix Potter illustrated with period photos and drawings, Peter Rabbit e-cards, and coloring pages, puzzles, online games, and crafts for kids. For a Peter Rabbit lesson plan for preschoolers, see The Tale of Peter Rabbit at http://www.first-school.ws/activities/onlinestory/animals/peterrabbit.htm which has several online versions of the story, an interactive Peter Rabbit puzzle, instructions for making a paper-bag rabbit puppet, and alphabet exercises centering around the letter R (for Rabbit).
Of the online Peter stories, I'd recommend The Tale of Peter Rabbit at http://wiredforbooks.org/kids/beatrix/p1.htm from the Ohio University Telecommunications Center, which has the complete Potter text and illustrations. You Tube also has a lovely two-part animation of the tale at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rppig5VYYlQ.
Jane Johnson's The True Story of Peter Rabbit: How a Letter Became a Beloved Children's Classic (Puffin, 2006) for ages 4-9 is a picture-book account of how Potter's clever, illustrated letter to a young friend grew into the first of 23 wonderful children's books - which, incidentally, include several others featuring rabbits, among them The Tale of Benjamin Bunny, The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies, and The Story of a Bad Fierce Rabbit. Miss Potter, the 2006 movie about Potter's life and work, is now available on DVD: 93 minutes long and rated PG, it stars Renee Zellweger as Beatrix Potter and Ewan McGregor as Norman Warne, her publisher, with whom she fell in love. (The PG is for "mild language;" watch it before your kids see it if you're worried.)
Alma Flor Ada's Dear Peter Rabbit (Aladdin, 2006) for ages 3-7 takes Peter Rabbit's story a step further: written as a series of letters among storybook characters, the book begins with a letter from the first Little Pig inviting Peter to a housewarming party. (Peter, unfortunately, is in bed with a cold after his awful experience in Mr. McGregor's garden.) Or kids can put their own spin on Peter Rabbit by staging a performance with Anna Pomaska's Cut & Assemble Peter Rabbit Toy Theater (Dover Publications, 1984), which comes complete with scenery, props, and four Potter characters: Peter Rabbit, Benjamin Bunny, Jemima Puddleduck, and Mrs. Tiggywinkle. ($7.95 from Dover Publications at http://www.doverpublications.com.)
On beyond Peter, there are vast numbers of bunnies to choose from - among them the alternative Peter Rabbit of the Thornton Burgess books. Author/naturalist Burgess wrote over 150 animal books for kids, starring such characters as Peter Rabbit, Reddy Fox, Little Joe Otter, Jimmy Skunk, and Johnny Chuck. For ages 5-10, these short chapter books combine story and personality - the animals talk - with realistic depictions of animal behaviors and habitats. (For more on Burgess and a complete list of book titles, see the Thornton Burgess Society web page at http://www.thorntonburgess.org.) Another good rabbit choice is Robert Lawson's Rabbit Hill (Puffin, 2007), originally published in 1944. This 128-page chapter book for ages 6-10 is the gentle story of what happens when new people move into the long-empty Big House and how they interact with the animal residents of Rabbit Hill.
Bunnicula: A Rabbit Tale of Mystery by Deborah Howe and James Howe (Aladdin, 2006), narrated by Harold, the family dog, is the story of the (suspiciously vampire-like) rabbit who was found by the Monroe family on one of the theater seats during a showing of Dracula. A lot of drained white vegetables and the hysterical over-reaction of Chester, the family cat, make for hilarious reading. The book is recommended for ages 8-12, and luckily there are several sequels.
The adventures of the wily Brer Rabbit can be found in Joel Chandler Harris's Uncle Remus tales, first published in 1880. Many versions of these classic African-American folktales are still in print, among them Uncle Remus: The Complete Tales (Dial, 1999) for ages 8 and up, retold by Julius Lester. For slightly younger kids, see Gerald McDermott's Zomo the Rabbit: A Trickster Tale from West Africa (Sandpiper, 1996), a picture book in which Zomo - a direct ancestor of Chandler's Brer Rabbit - cockily asks the Sky God for wisdom and is promised it if he can perform three next-to-impossible tasks. Zomo manages to deliver, through outrageous trickery, and gets his wish - along with some divine advice that from now on, given how he's behaved, he'd better be prepared to run away fast.
For teenagers, Richard Adams's rabbit world of Watership Down (Scribner, 2005) is now a staple of high school reading lists - and deservedly so. The plot centers around a small band of rabbits - Hazel, Fiver, Bigwig, Bluebell, and Dandelion - who leave their home warren after a warning from the clairvoyant Fiver that destruction (land developers) is imminent - to find a new and safer home. Adams creates a complex and believable culture of rabbits, with social structure, language, customs, and religion. For a related study unit, see Watership Down at http://home.earthlink.net/~eduscapes/units/watership/, which includes teacher resources and student activities.
Peter Rabbit Meets Charles Darwin at http://www.accessexcellence.org/AE/AEPC/WWC/1995/rabbit.php is an introduction to evolution for high school-level kids: this simple exercise involves a population of rabbits variously with long or short ears. When an earthquake changes the course of a river and separates the population, selection pressures take hold.
The mathematical rabbit is featured at Fibonacci Numbers and Nature at http://www.mcs.surrey.ac.uk/Personal/R.Knott/Fibonacci/fobnat.html, an excellent activity-based site illustrated with photos and diagrams that covers the Fibonacci sequence in rabbits, cows, bees, sea shells, pine cones, and much more. For Fibonacci novices ages 6-9, see Joy N. Hulme's Wild Fibonacci: Nature's Secret Code Revealed (Tricycle Press, 2005) - literally, a Fibonacci counting book - or Ann McCallum's Rabbits Rabbits Everywhere (Charlesbridge Publishing, 2007), a picture-book fable set in the little town of Chee, famous for its gardens and its ravenous and rapidly multiplying rabbits.
Enchanted Learning at http://www.enchantedlearning.com/coloring has a terrific assortment of animal printouts: visit "L" for "Lagomorph" for coloring pages and diagrams of rabbits and hares, along with a rabbit quiz. If you're a little shaky on the difference between rabbits and hares, Rabbits and Hares at http://vrhome.com/kidsweb/Rabbits.htm provides a concise illustrated run-down - which you may need if you next decide to segue into Aesop's "The Tortoise and the Hare," the familiar story of the over-confident hare who lost a race with the slow and steady tortoise. There are, of course, many picture-book versions of the story, but one of the more attractive is Angela McAllister's The Tortoise and the Hare (Frances Lincoln Children's Books, 2004), beautifully retold and illustrated with gorgeous woodcuts. On the other hand, the hare wasn't the only racer: see The Tortoise and the Hare (and other races between unequal contestants) at http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/type0275.html for a long list of similar stories from a range of cultures, variously featuring a fox and a snail, a mole and a hawk, a frog and an antelope, and more. (Invent some of your own?)
And finally, for the serious rabbit lover, see Nancy Searle's Your Rabbit: A Kid's Guide to Raising and Showing (Storey Publishing, 1992), a definitive guide to rabbit husbandry for ages 10 and up.
Agreed!
Well, rats. This is the kind of game - because its aims are so irreproachably high - to which I hate to give a bad review. However, as a veteran homeschooler, I know what generates a substantive discussion and what doesn't, and this - though it wants to - doesn't.
Agreed! is a game designed to further world peace, via a debate among quotations from "authors, sages, poets, and prophets." You read two, chosen at random, decide which quotation is best, and gradually - through a series of sequential debates - come out with a world winner. There are nearly 500 quotations, variously the wisdom of Buddha, Jesus, Mark Twain, Muhammad, Lao Tzu, Gandhi, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Confucius, Sheldon Kopp, Thich Nhat Hanh, William James, Joseph Campbell, Henry David Thoreau, Wayne Dyer, John Wooden, and Anais Nin.
Given a few quibbles - for starters, I have trouble equating UCLA basketball coach John Wooden, self-help promoter Wayne Dyer, or psychotherapist Sheldon Kopp with "sage" - the real problem with Agreed! is that there's not much to disagree with. Philosophical debate is indeed a great premise for a game - but there's nothing here to choose between but "Happiness begins where selfishness ends" and "The universal brotherhood of man is our most precious possession."
The bottom line is that in order to agree, you have to have a platform on which to disagree. Agreed! provides nothing but a not particularly well thought out foregone conclusion.
$39.95 for ages 12 and up from http://www.agreedgame.com.
Harry Houdini for Kids (and a magic rabbit)
What kid could possibly resist this one? Laurie Carlson's informational activity book Harry Houdini for Kids (Chicago Review Press, 2009) for ages 9 and up covers the life and times of the world's most famous magician and escape artist, illustrated with period prints and photographs. Included are "21 Magic Tricks and Illusions." For example, kids learn to tie a magic knot, tackle the Magic Key trick, build a box kite, crack a secret code, write an invisible message, and whip up a batch of ectoplasm, all while learning about Houdini himself and the world of the early twentieth century in which he lived. A helpful resource list includes supplementary reading suggestions and related Web sites to explore.
$16.95 from bookstores.
And finally, just one last rabbit: Annette LeBlanc Cate's The Magic Rabbit (Candlewick, 2007), for ages 4-8, is the delightful picture-book tale of a street magician and his beloved rabbit assistant. When the two become separated after an unexpected performance disaster, all looks bleak - until a passion for popcorn (and a magical trail of gold stars) brings the pair together again.
© 2009, Rebecca Rupp
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