BUNNY BUSINESS

Harry is sharp, but easily distracted. So when it’s time for his teacher to assign parts in the class’s spring play, Harry is a natural for Funny Bunny. But after a classmate complains that Harry will spoil the play and Harry follows that complaint up by making his bunny ears incorrectly, he decides to focus. He learns everyone’s lines in the play and is able to come to the rescue when George, the complainer, freezes at the opening performance. Poydar’s (Rhyme Time Valentine, 2002, etc.) illustrations are brilliantly colored and detailed, showing the children’s rosy cheeks, their often garishly busy clothing, and the various items that fill (or is that clutter?) a typical elementary-school classroom. Harry’s classmates’ irritation at his boisterousness is believable and humorously illustrated; his desire to prove himself, realistic. The story is relatively slight, to be sure, but also reassuringly comfortable in its setting and tone and sharply attuned in its depiction of Harry’s short attention span. Teachers and librarians looking for a new story for spring will be pleased to find this one on the shelf. The final page provides the directions for making “correct” bunny ears and the challenge to try to make Harry’s incorrect pair. (Picture book. 5-8)