The Hare Who Wouldn’t Share

In one word—“crotchety”—Small (Brave Little Bear) aptly describes the big, orange, scowling Hare who stars in this visually sumptuous fable. When a rabbit family moves into the woods, all the other animals help fill their cupboard except Hare, who won’t part with a single one of his beloved turnips. The rabbits later invite him to a neighborly party, and Hare wonders, “Why would these rabbits give away so much of something they had worked so hard for when they had so little?” Then the protagonist encounters Boar heading to eat the rabbits’ carrot crops, and the way the porcine creature looms over Hare and steals his turnips seems to rout the crotchetiness: Hare feels small, vulnerable, and immediately empathic to the rabbits’ pending plight. Hare helps the family hide their carrots, and in yet another striking image, huddles with them in the darkness of their burrow and cautions “Shhh...” as Boar’s snout protrudes through the entry. Hare’s selflessness costs him his entire turnip crop, but his compensation is considerable: he is embraced, for the first time, by the entire forest community—and learns to embrace others in return. Ages 4–8. (Feb.)