Rabbit Wishes: Cuban Folktales

In the beginning, according to this bit of African-Cuban folklore, tio Conejo--Uncle Rabbit--had ``short shapely ears.'' How they grew to their current length makes for a merry tale, with Shute's (Clever Tom and the Leprechaun) humorous recounting liberally spiced with Spanish words and phrases. Feeling shortchanged by his small stature, tio Conejo whines to the creator, Papa Dios, who agrees to ""think about"" making the rabbit bigger if he fetches a feather from an eagle, an egg from a snake and a tooth from a lion. The determined bunny neatly bamboozles these predators with a whistle he fashions from a pumpkin stem, and returns with his trophies to a praiseful Papa Dios. But only bits of tio Conejo--his ears--end up any larger. To create her droll illustrations (featuring a particularly personable animal cast), Shute dips her brush into the hot tropical palette of her native Miami. Notes on the story's background and a Spanish vocabulary list are included. Ages 4-up. (Apr.)