HARRIS FINDS HIS FEET

A grandfather hare takes a frisky youngster on an odyssey of (self-)discovery. Sitting in a grassy field, brown Harris the hare bemoans his enormous feet. His gray Granddad appears, seemingly out of thin air and, hopping high in the sky, offers to show Harris why his feet are so large. Abruptly, they’re off on a long-distance journey. Across a brown desert, through a green plain, staring up at the sky where a skein of birds is flying and lying in the tall grass listening to the insects, Granddad teaches him how to explore the world, and to love it. His big feet are his passport. Then, “It’s your turn to run,” says Granddad, leaving as quickly as he came. Rayner’s text is minimal and poetic; her watercolors are both beautiful and quirky, with warm colors and offbeat perspectives that emphasize Harris’s prodigious feet. A lovely lesson delivered with a deft touch. (Picture book. 3-6)