Quiet Bunny's Many Colors

PreS-K—This treacly, message-driven picture book will likely please undemanding fans of cuteness but leave more-discerning readers disappointed. It is spring and Quiet Bunny decides that his brown-and-white fur is the color of winter. He wants to be the color of spring, so he turns yellow by covering himself with honey and then dandelions but falls into a stream that washes him clean. He then becomes green, blue, and red in turn, using lily pads, blueberries, and red mud. The mud hardens and he sadly washes it off in a stream, where the proverbially wise old owl (in a gatefold) tells him, "That is why the spring forest is beautiful….We are all different colors, and we are all beautiful!" The pedestrian text is overly long for the audience, and the didactic message lacks subtlety. The art, with a very fluffy bunny and bright, candy-colored flowers, has the look and feel of a greeting card. The pacing, with the use of spot art and full-bleed spreads, moves the story along nicely, although the gatefold is unnecessary and unlikely to hold up. On the whole, this is an unexceptional addition to the glut of books about colors.—Amy Lilien-Harper, The Ferguson Library, Stamford, CT