LETTICE, THE DANCING RABBIT

Little Lettice is a pale-gray bunny ballerina who wears pink slippers and a hair bow with sparkly glitter on the cover of this sweet (some might say saccharine) story, its charming illustrations in pretty pastels complemented by perky pink-checked endpapers. When Lettice spies a picture of a ballet dancer pinned to a tree, she decides then and there that she must be a dancer, too. She hops over to the dance studio by herself, borrows some dancewear from a ballerina doll, and joins the class. Her natural ability at leaping leads to some extraordinary moves, and a successful starring role in the year-end recital. In a jarring and psychologically unsatisfying ending, Lettice’s large family leaves her behind at the theater, thinking she is now a star who doesn’t have time for them. Lettice gives up her dream and all her hard work, throws away her ballet garb, and goes back to the rabbit family’s grassy hill because “she knew that being a rabbit was, by far, the very best thing in the world.” Oh, dear—confident, talented youngsters can’t break out of the family mold to succeed where others have dared not tread? Perhaps that’s just for rabbit children, and not for humans. Let us hope so. (Picture book. 3-7)