Rabbit & Bear: Rabbit's Bad Habits

by Julian Gough, Jim Field (Illustrator)

Overview

Rabbit and Bear are neighbors who face avalanches, snowmen, a hungry wolf...and more! Can they become friends too?

Named to Kirkus Reviews' Best Middle-Grade Books of 2019
2020 IBPA Benjamin Franklin Awards GOLD Winner, Young Reader: Fiction (8-12 years) Category
When Bear wakes up early from her hibernation, she decides to build a snowman. Her grumpy neighbor, Rabbit, decides to build an even better one. Rabbit & Bear: Rabbit’s Bad Habits is full of laugh-out-loud moments and chronicles the forming of an unlikely friendship. With illustrations throughout, this book is perfect for middle-grade readers and is sure to become a fun favorite on any kid’s bookshelf.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781645177104
Publisher:	Silver Dolphin Books
Publication date:	06/08/2021
Series:	Rabbit & Bear Series , #1
Pages:	112
Sales rank:	158,314
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.00(h) x 0.50(d)
Lexile:	560L (what's this?)
Age Range:	6 - 8 Years

About the Author

Julian Gough is an award-winning novelist, playwright, poet, musician, and scriptwriter. He was born in London, grew up in Ireland, and now lives in Berlin. Among many other things, Julian wrote the wonderful novel Connect, and the ending to Minecraft, the world’s most successful computer game for children of all ages. He likes to drink coffee and steal pigs.

Jim Field is an award-winning illustrator, character designer, and animation director. He grew up in Farnborough, worked in London, and now lives in Paris. His first picture book, Cats Ahoy!, written by Peter Bently, won the Booktrust Roald Dahl Funny Prize. He is perhaps best known for drawing frogs on logs in the bestselling Oi Frog. He likes playing the guitar and drinking coffee.

Editorial Reviews

Rabbit's Bad Habits should become an instant modern classic. Stands shoulder to shoulder with Pooh and Toad. Cheeky, delightful and hilarious.

Eoin Colfer

This beginning chapter book is delightfully weird, hilarious, and tender-hearted!

Imagination Soup

Whether it’s the grisly truth about leporidae eating their poo, the hilarious, touching dynamic between big, gentle Bear and cantankerous, selfish—but not irredeemable—Rabbit, or Jim Field’s blue-white, deft and atmospheric images, there’s much to love in this splendid little book.

The Guardian

Rabbit's Bad Habits is a breath of fresh air in children’s fiction, a laugh-out-loud story of rabbit and wolf and bear, of avalanches and snowmen. The sort of story that makes you want to send your children to bed early, so you can read it to them.

Neil Gaiman

A laugh-out-loud celebration of friendship, forest life...and poo.

Metro

A delight, with super illustrations and a lovely story about friendship.

Independent on Sunday

A laugh-out-loud celebration of friendship, forest life...and poo.

Metro M D

12/24/2018

Gough’s children’s debut, a series starter that was first published in the U.K. in 2016, chronicles a rocky friendship between clever, grouchy Rabbit and slow-moving, gentle Bear, with some eye-opening biology thrown in for free. After discovering that her hibernation food stash has been stolen, Bear encounters grumpy Rabbit, whose response to her friendly overtures isn’t promising (“Go away... and take your avalanche with you”). Back in his hole, Rabbit is revealed as the food thief. He tucks into Bear’s delicious grub, and then—“he did a little poo and ate it.” Witnessing this personal moment, Bear inquires after it politely. In a hilarious and enlightening sequence, Rabbit explains why rabbits need the extra digestive go-round (“It’s really, really difficult to make a rabbit out of plants”). Bear starts to understand Rabbit’s physiology (and grouchiness) better, and Rabbit comes to value Bear’s playful nature—a virtue that proves lifesaving when a hungry wolf appears. Illustrations by Field (The Koala Who Could) appear on every page, featuring elastic facial expressions and frenetic action that keeps the energy crackling. Gough aces the characters’ bumpy encounters, and the intimate details of Rabbit’s life are guaranteed to make even the squeamish laugh—and learn. Ages 8–12. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly