Runaway Bunny

The Runaway Bunny, by Margaret Wise Brown and illustrated by Clement Hurd, is another classic suggested by Natascha.

It's a sweet parent-child book along the lines of Guess How Much I Love You. The baby rabbit says it may turn into various objects to get away from it's mother. For each declaration, however, the mother rabbit says it will turn into something else as well and follow the bunny. Finally, the bunny decides it might as well stay right where it is.

If you'd like to pair this with a new book, one of my favorite new author/artists, Peter McCarty, has a wonderful new book, Bunny on the Move.

Sometimes I get caught in the trap that I always need to be presenting the newest books to kids. But something to remember is that if you love a book it will come through to the child you're reading it too. Especially for those parents that haven't read much to their children but want to start, I feel it's important to start with the books they remember. What better way to get them charged up.

Tonight I was at a meeting for the Read to Me program at the Hennepin County Adult Corrections Facility. It's a program where volunteers and librarians meet with residents of the facility and talk with them about the importance of reading with their children and bringing them to the library. At the end, the parents read books onto a disc and it is mailed to the children. Many previous participants in their testimonials talked about favorite books from their childhood they were excited to read to their children.

Thanks Natascha. Keep reading.