One, Two, Three, OOPS!

Mr. Rabbit's rambunctious bunnies simply won't cooperate with his various attempts at a census. For example, Mr. Rabbit tries to keep track by offering a carrot to each bunny as he counts him or her, but the bunnies eat the carrots so fast, ""He couldn't tell which ones he'd counted and which ones he hadn't."" Finally, he waits until all the bunnies are asleep--and even then he discovers that he has underestimated the size of his brood. Neither Coleman nor Williamson (previously paired for Lazy Ozzie and Ridiculous) mines this premise for all its potential humor. The rabbits aren't really distinguishable from one another and the illustrations offer few visual clues to Mr. Rabbit's mounting frustration. Coleman tries to inject some drive into the plodding narrative by having Mr. Rabbit sputter an ever-growing series of G-rated expletives each time a counting tactic fails (""Oh, noggin-sploggin!"" by the end of the book has become ""Oh, noggin-sploggin, boodle-doodle, grizzly-wizzly, sniffy-whiffy, jingle-bingle, fuddle-duddle, jungle- bungle!""). The verbal equivalent of slipping on a banana peel, it will likely elicit some laughs, but ultimately readers, like Mr. Rabbit, will lose interest in how many bunnies hop through these pages. Ages 3-7. (Mar.)