Cat & Bunny: A Springtime Book For Kids

by Mary Lundquist, Mary Lundquist (Illustrator)

Overview

From the heartwarming text to the adorable illustrations of little kids dressed as animals, there's so much to love about Mary Lundquist's debut picture book, Cat & Bunny. Cat and Bunny. Bunny and Cat.

It's always been just the two of them—daydreaming, having adventures, playing their special game. Until the day someone else asks, "Can I play?"

Mary Lundquist captures all the charm and magic of first friendship in her winning debut picture book.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062287809
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	01/27/2015
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	9.70(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.50(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Mary Lundquist is the author and illustrator of Cat & Bunny and the illustrator of several other picture books, including One Little Two Little Three Little Children and Bloom. She graduated with a BFA from Massachusetts College of Art and Design and now lives with her husband and sons in Vermont. You can see more of her work on her website, www.marylundquist.com.

Mary Lundquist is the author and illustrator of Cat & Bunny and the illustrator of several other picture books, including One Little Two Little Three Little Children and Bloom. She graduated with a BFA from Massachusetts College of Art and Design and now lives with her husband and sons in Vermont. You can see more of her work on her website, www.marylundquist.com.

Editorial Reviews

★ 10/20/2014
Lundquist’s sympathetic debut introduces inseparable friends, one in a zippered cat costume and the other in a white, long-eared bunny outfit: “Right from the start, they did everything together.” The title page pictures them swaddled among other infants in a variety of animal onesies. Cat and Bunny progress from binkies to tricycles to playgrounds, always a duo and always in their coverall suits. When Quail, a child dressed as a bird, asks to join them in their play, “Cat wasn’t sure. Bunny said, ‘Yes, of course!’ ” Bunny welcomes several children into their group and soon “was having too much fun to notice... when Cat ran away.” Lundquist ably suggests that an exclusive friendship can be stifling to one person and an anchor for the other. In amiable watercolor and pencil drawings, she pictures all the children in hooded animal costumes, a visual strategy that lets her conceal characters’ genders; this story, she implies, could be about anyone. While developing independent identities and adjusting their expectations, Cat and Bunny demonstrate how to admit new friends into a tight circle. Ages 4–8. Agent: Steven Malk, Writers House. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

In amiable watercolor and pencil drawings, [Lundquist] pictures all the children in hooded animal costumes; this story, she implies, could be about anyone. While developing independent identities and adjusting their expectations, Cat and Bunny demonstrate how to admit new friends into a tight circle.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

From the Publisher

11/01/2014
PreS-K—Best friends since birth, Cat and Bunny do everything together, from eating lunch to riding bikes. They are inseparable until the day Quail asks to join in their special "Made-Up Game." Bunny cheerfully agrees, but Cat is reluctant. When more and more children join in, Cat slinks away. As she sits under a tree, hoping that Bunny will come and get her, she meets a new friend—a real kitten. As they are playing a new Made-Up Game with a ball of yarn, Giraffe asks to play, and so does another friend and another. Soon, all of the children—including Bunny—have gathered to play, and all strife is forgotten. Dainty pencil and watercolor illustrations on white backgrounds imbue this story with playfulness and light. Though it's not entirely clear why the children are depicted wearing animal suits à la Anne Geddes, their attire adds extra whimsy to the ordinary but entirely relatable tale about the ever-changing nature of friendships.—Yelena Alekseyeva-Popova, formerly at Chappaqua Library, NY

School Library Journal

2014-10-22
The dedication page's strategic placement of acorns attached to a branch—two intertwined and one, alone, sprouting in the opposite direction—foreshadows the conflict in this story of fluctuating friendships. Looking like children in animal costumes, the peach-hued Cat and the brown-toned Bunny have been friends since they were born—"on the same day of the same month in the same year." Pencil-and-watercolor scenes, rendered with an earthy palette against a clean white background, depict the duo daydreaming, bicycling and picnicking in a state of halcyon happiness. The Made-Up Game (their favorite) has rules only they know. One day, the game's appealing train tracks, acorns and leaves attract the attention of Quail, who asks to join in. When Bunny warmly welcomes him, the other "creatures" follow, and Cat feels abandoned. It isn't until an actual kitten cottons to Cat, and they devise a unique game, that she understands it is possible to enjoy more than one relationship. A final woodland scene where all play together follows organically from a simple, unforced conversation. Short sentences, often paired with several actions on a page, keep the eyes moving and the pages turning at a perfect pace for preschool attention spans. Listeners will definitely relate to the pain of being left out; this gentle tale offers an opportunity to contemplate one's own role in a solution. (Picture book. 3-6)

Kirkus Reviews