I therefore disagree with Marilyn Courtot's review in Children's Literature, which says "there is nothing particularly exciting about this little romp through the seasons". “I blow the dandelion seeds into the air”, or “I watch the animals getting ready for winter”. The text is simple-about one sentence per page, but lends itself to further discussion, i.e. A cute bunny in red overalls named Nicholas narrates the story he lives in a hollow tree and shows us how he enjoys observing the changing seasons and playing with plants and animals.Īlthough Richard Scarry painted the illustrations, they don’t have the cartoonish quality of his later books-they are brightly colored, but show subtle details such as the fall coloration on maple leaves, and different kinds of butterflies-ambitious parents could identify and teach their children the names of the different trees and birds that appear. This book is perfect for babies and toddlers who are actively discovering the natural world around them.
So yes, while I have indeed very much aesthetically enjoyed in particular Richard Scarry's pictorial renderings of nature in I am a Bunny (and that I do tend to find them so much more soothing and less aesthetically frenetic than his illustrative style for say Best Word Book Ever or What Do People Do All Day?) the fact remains that to and for me, I most definitely and strongly consider it somewhat unnatural that even with Richard Scarry's illustrative emphasis on nature, Nicholas Bunny Rabbit is still drawn as being clothed liked a human and indeed I furthermore also kind of consider Ole Risom's presented and featured text as just a bit too simple and unimaginative (and as such with not really enough detail and information and this even in a picture book geared to very young children)
However, as an older and of course therefore a much more critical reader and as someone who also never did encounter I Am a Bunny as a young child (and thus having no fondly nostalgic memories of Ole Risom's text and Richard Scarry's accompanying pictures either), I have to admit that albeit I do consider Nicholas Bunny Rabbit telling us all about his life and what he enjoys doing during the four seasons sweetly tenderly engaging (and that I indeed very much do enjoy and aesthetically admire Richard Scarry's illustrations and their visually magical celebration of spring, summer, autumn, winter and nature in general, even as I do wonder a bit how Nicholas would be able to fit under a fly agaric mushroom to shelter from the rain), I personally have to indeed question why since I am a Bunny clearly is a narrative celebrating nature and the natural world, why Nicholas is then still depicted by Richard Scarry as being clad like a human being and not like a truly natural rabbit just in his fur. Now for the intended age group, for very young children, Ole Risom's 1963 I Am a Bunny might well and totally hit the proverbial sweet spot.
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