Bunny My Honey

Jeram covers familiar ground in this sweet tale of a lost bunny rescued by his mother. Echoes of Margaret Wise Brown reverberate throughout, both in the use of repetition (""The more Bunny looked for his friends and his mommy the more lost and the more lost and the more lost he became"") and in the inclusion of a little ditty that Bunny and his friends, Miss Mouse and Little Duckling, are wont to sing: ""We're the little Honeys/ A little Honey is sweet./ Quack quack, squeak squeak,/ Thump your GREAT BIG feet!"" In a bit of visual deja vu, Jeram reprises the artistic style employed so successfully in her illustrations for Sam McBratney's Guess How Much I Love You, again hewing to a soft, woodsy palette of mossy greens and browns, and tucking in the kind of small details--mushrooms, a snail who pops up on nearly every page, a duckling splashing in a puddle--that delight the very young. The humorous moments showcase Jeram at her best, as when Bunny, in his search for his mother, parts the fronds of a fern and peers quizzically through. While the path is well worn, the trek is a comfortable one, and the conclusion will elicit smiles all around. Ages 2-5. (Jan.)