My Friend Rabbit

Rohmann, E. (2002). My friend rabbit.  Connecticut: Roaring Book Press.

Grade Level: Pre-K- 2

Genre: Picture Book- This book is primarily composed of illustrations that tell the story and is aimed at young readers.

Summary: My Friend Rabbit features a cute story about friendship along with terrific illustrations.  The story is about a friendship between a mouse and a rabbit that always seems to find trouble.  They are playing with an airplane when it becomes stuck in a tree.  That’s where the adventure begins. Not to worry, though.  Rabbit has a plan.

Reflection: Rohmann’s Caldecott-Winning illustrations are very striking with the thick black lines that surround all the characters and the illustrations. In one part of the book, you have to turn the book vertically to see the picture as it fills two pages, a composition feature that adds to the story. Rohmann does an excellent job of taking you on Mouse and Rabbit’s adventure through his expressive illustrations and letting the reader determine the personalities of all the characters through their expressions. In using this book in the classroom, it would be great for analyzing characters and asking students of they would choose Rabbit for their friend and tell why or why not. The story itself is quite simple, but uses plenty of literary elements. Rohmann foreshadows the conflict in the story in the first two lines of the book, “My friend Rabbit means well. But whatever he does, wherever he goes, trouble follows.”  He uses personification in his story, having Rabbit and Mouse playing with a toy airplane. Rohmann is an excellent storyteller and this is truly an enjoyable story to read. There is a lot to be said about the quirks of friendship and Rohmann took one quirk and turned it into a relatable story.  Everyone has or will have at some point, a friend like Rabbit.