cover image Hare's Choice

Hare's Choice

Dennis Hamley. Delacorte Press Books for Young Readers, $13.95 (88pp) ISBN 978-0-385-30050-6

When two children find a dead hare by the side of the road, they bring it to show their classmates at school. The children are so entranced by its beauty that they decide to write a story about it, which evolves into an heroic tale fueled by the imaginations and particular interests of each child. As the students' work progresses, the hare's soul awakes and becomes part of their fairy tale. The animal is then given a choice between eternity in the natural world of death or in the world of the imagination. Hamley has written an elegantly small, simple parable about the power of the imagination, imbued with an instinctive feel for the basic laws of nature; the story from the hare's point of view is startlingly realistic and unsentimental. Rutherford's stylish drawings have a stark quality that is perfectly synchronized with this unusual novel. Hare's Choice presents the art of writing to children as a natural, rewarding endeavor. Ages 8 - 12. (Apr.)