Review - The Runaway Bunny

The Runaway Bunny
by Margaret Wise Brown
illustrated by Clement Hurd
Date: 1942
Publisher: HarperCollins
Reading level: C
Book type: picture book
Pages: 48
Format: e-book
Source: library

A little bunny keeps running away from his mother in an imaginative and imaginary game of verbal hide-and-seek; children will be profoundly comforted by this lovingly steadfast mother who finds her child every time.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

I think I may have read this (or had it read to me) as a child, because it wasn't entirely unfamiliar. But it was still fresh enough for me that I quite enjoyed it.

A little bunny decides (as kids sometimes do) that he's going to run away. But, no matter where he says he's going to run to, his mother always has an answer as to how she's going to keep him in her life because, after all, he is her little bunny.

The illustrations, a mix of black-and-white and full-colour pictures, are charming, showing the rabbits doing all sorts of things, from the anthropomorphized to the fantastical.

I love the ending. It's simple, quick, and oh, so perfect.

Those looking for classic picture books might want to check this one out. There's a reason it's still in print after so many decades!

Premise: 4/5
Meter: n/a
Writing: 4/5
Illustrations: 3/5
Originality: 3/5

Enjoyment: 4/5

Overall: 3.67 out of 5