Why Lapin's Ears Are Long and Other Tales of the Louisiana Bayou

Later known as Br'er Rabbit, Compere Lapin stars in this collection of stories from the first stop on the famously sassy bunny's literary immigration from Africa to Louisiana. Doucet (Le Hoogie Boogie Songbook), an adopted Louisianan, clearly relishes her flavorful region, slinging about humorous colloquialisms with great joy. ""Everybody's stomach was stuffed fuller than politician's pockets,"" she quips while lacing her characters' speech with French words and creative, bayou-style syntax. The three stories showcase the rabbit's cunning ways: two of them explain Lapin's long-eared and short-tailed appearance, and the last tells how the hare gets hitched, much to the horror of his fiance's father. Catrow (She's Wearing a Dead Bird on Her Head!) accentuates the text's humor with his angular, zanily exaggerated cartoon style, while managing to make Compere Lapin all the more endearing. Ages 5-up. (Sept.)