I Will Race You Through This Book!

Speed-reading takes on new meaning when a rabbit named Book-It Bunny challenges readers to a race in this interactive early-reader-turned-race-course. With long ears, buckteeth, and a tendency toward duplicity, Book-It proves to be a wily competitor. Only a page after uttering “Get set!” the rabbit is already pleading “Stop! I was not ready yet!” From there the action becomes largely visual, with Fenske’s thick line drawings emphasizing the protagonist’s theatrics: Book-It sneaks across the page while the reader’s eyes are closed, whizzes to the right edge of a spread, and pants for air. Turning to trickery—“Look up! Is that a flying cow?”—backfires when an actual flying cow comes on the scene, and though the bunny stretches out one long ear while nearing the finish line, of course the reader gets there first. “I did not even want to win,” Book-It coyly declares before challenging a new racing partner: a snail. With fast-paced text and illustrations to match, Fenske has created a page-turning race that readers will surely want to run again. Ages 4–8. [em](May) [/em]