Oh So Tiny Bunny

Oh So Tiny Bunny has delectable pink ears, enormous glittering eyes, and dreams of being large. Kirk paints him towering like a friendly pajama-clad King Kong over a winding river, with brown bears capering around his feet like mice. Large bunnies need more to eat, of course, “So he dreams... of crunchy carrots as big as railroad cars, and fields of lettuce as wide as oceans.” A train of carrots stretches across the horizon, and carrot dolphins swim through a leafy green sea. Oh So is also lonely (“He hops over houses. He bounds over bridges.... But no matter where Oh So looks... there is no bunny”), a problem remedied by the real-life arrival of a friend just his size. The purposefully saccharine aesthetic is more akin to the cuddly animal stars of Kirk’s Biddle series than the crispness of his Miss Spider books. Oh So’s pajamas change pattern like a chameleon depending on his surroundings, and a bower of pink roses frames the friends’ first meeting. Along with the breathless tone, it may be cloying to some, but Kirk knows his audience, and they will be charmed. Ages 3–6. (Feb.)