LETTICE: The Dancing Rabbit

Pink-eared, pint-size Lettice Rabbit yearns to be a dancer, so she hops to town "all by herself," takes ballet classes with the humans and earns the starring role in the class recital. (Lettice's teacher is "amazed" at her "extraordinary" jumps.) Aspiring ballerinas will identify with the resolute bunny as she finds just the right practice clothes (they're from a doll) and learns to leap and twirl. At the recital, Lettice's family members clap "their soft little paws all through the show," but Lettice is hurt when they (improbably) go home without her. Feeling lonely when they tease her the next day, she throws off her dancing togs and decides that "being a rabbit [is], by far, the very best thing in the world." Since Stanley (Bloomer: The Dog You Can Play With) devotes most of the book to Lettice's joy in dancing and her determination to follow her dream, it's disappointing if not downright puzzling when she abruptly abandons her hard-won accomplishments. The book's pink-gingham spine and endpapers recall the jackets of Dare Wright's Edith books, while the loosely drawn pastel illustrations nod at the quiet sweetness of Angelina Ballerina, but Lettice has a plucky personality of her own. The understated picture of Lettice tying her shoe ribbons as she sits atop her dressing table, almost dwarfed by a greeting card, shows the heroine as a charmer—and one who deserves a better plot. Ages 3-8. (Jan.)