We’re delighted to be part of the Laura Mucha & Hannah Peck’s Rita’s Rabbit blogtour! Rita’s wish for a particular pet will be familiar to many children (and their parents!) but in this humorous story Rita learns that you should be careful what you wish for!
The Story: Rita really wants a rabbit so when Grandpa buys her a bearded dragon for her birthday she isn’t happy and tries to give it away – unsuccessfully! One evening there is a knock at the door and a rabbit hops in. As the rabbit causes chaos Rita soon learns that not all rabbits are cute and cuddly. But Spike, the bearded dragon, knows how to handle the situation…
And then the doorbell rings again…
Rita’s reaction to Spike is extreme and our sympathies lie with him as he tries to live with an owner who doesn’t want him – he even starts wearing bunny ears! But despite the way that he’s been treated he still helps Rita which leads to her learning to love him.
Rita wants a rabbit so much that she wears a rabbit onesie and paints pictures of rabbits but that changes once she has experienced the way that the fierce frowny rabbit behaves. We love the way that the text uses alliteration to describe the animals and there is so much humour in the illustrations. We keep finding more and more humorous little details and we love the way the first illustration showing Rita drawing mirrors the final one, just with a different pet.
One of our favourite illustrations shows the rabbit misbehaving, we love the ‘bow and carrot’!
We also love the illustration showing the neighbours with all their pets…
Rita’s Rabbit would be a fun story to include in an Early Years topic on pets. It can stimulate discussion about the pets that children have at home, the pets that children would love to have and the different characteristics of animals. Another fun activity would be to describe their pets using alliteration.
Age Range: 3 +
Author: Laura Mucha / Illustrator: Hannah Peck
Introducing our new hamster, Ginger!
We’ve got a new pet, she’s not a cute cuddly rabbit or a bearded dragon, she’s a Gold Hamster called Ginger. She’s been with us for a few weeks now but is still quite shy. She’ll let us stroke her but she hasn’t let us pick her up yet, maybe she never will! Here she is in her sand bath, she loves wallowing in it and flings sand all over the cage as she cleans her fur!
If you would like to read more about Rita’s Rabbit and see more bloggers’ cute pets you can hop over to the other stops on this week’s blogtour;
Thank you to Faber Children’s Books for sending us a review copy of Rita’s Rabbit.
My goodness – let’s hear it for Rita! Fun! #MMBC
It’s a fun story and Hannah Peck’s amusing illustrations complement the text perfectly 🙂
Ginger is gorgeous, I have always loved hamsters. Rita’s Rabbit sounds like a really fun book and a great way to introduce the idea of pets into the family.
Thank you! I am not really a pet person but Ginger is so undemanding and easy to care for that I’m glad we’ve got her 🙂
Ah this looks like a lovely story 🙂 x #MMBC
It’s really funny and the illustrations are full of humour 🙂
Love the illustrations – sounds like quite a funny story. Your new hamster is adorable. #MMBC
It’s very funny! Our new hamster is so timid, she still doesn’t want us to pick her up!
What a lovely book and the illustrations are are so fun! And we love Ginger, she is gorgeous. 🙂
It’s a great story. Now we’re getting to know Ginger better we’re planning some new toys for her house 🙂