The Rabbits’ Rebellion

Argentine-Chilean-American novelist Dorfman’s only children’s book, which was written in the 1970s and published in the U.K. in 2001, makes its uncannily timed arrival on U.S. shores. After wolves conquer the land of the rabbits, their pompous leader proclaims himself King of the Wolves and decrees that rabbits have “ceased to exist,” going so far as to eradicate them from literature. The deluded narcissist summons an elderly monkey photographer to record him flexing his muscles, frightening pigeons, and sitting atop his absurdly elevated throne. He orders them to be displayed “on every wall in the kingdom” and sent abroad, “so those silly foreign papers will stop attacking me.” But when the photos are developed, rabbits are brazenly posing in the foreground, and the bewildered photographer is tasked with erasing their images. In prose that speaks volumes, Dorfman’s eerily prescient allegorical gem shapes a resounding portrait of power abused and censorship foiled, reinforced by Riddell’s (the Goth Girl series) droll, spot-on line drawings. A tale for the ages—and for all ages. Ages 7–up. [em](Nov.) [/em]