Tao Nyeu's first book 'Wonderbear' was a big favourite in our house, with its surrealist flights of fantasy involving a magical bear which emerged from a hat, grown on a plant from a seed planted by a small boy. So we were full of anticipation for her new book 'Bunny Days' (Dial Books for Young Readers, 2010). Here we found the same fluid lines of her earlier book, made using water-based silkscreen printing. There is also a bear, though this bear's activities are a tad more prosaic, and the whole book is more gentle, whimsical and just plain cute.
Bunny Days has three stories, each of which feature the trials and tribulations of six cute bunnies, and each of which Tao Nyeu has illustrated around a selective palette of, in turn, blue, orange and green, all of which are muted.
In 'Muddy Bunnies', our hopping friends are splashed with mud from Mr Goat's tractor. The bunnies hop to Bear for assistance. They find him knitting himself a stripy scarf and just by chance sitting next to a washing machine, into which the bunnies are loaded (the delicate cycle). 'Swish swash' they are washed, hung out to dry all day and all night and 'Everyone is happy', a reassuring resolution repeated at the end of the following two stories.
In 'Dusty Bunnies' Mrs Goat is hoovering in the meadow (I love these touches of the absurd), 'Rrrr' she mistakenly sucks up the bunnies from their underground slumber. The frustrated housewife visits Bear (now wearing his knitted scarf and swinging on a swing) , who shakes the little bunnies out and blows off the dust with his big fan 'Whirrr'. A few careful repairs to Mrs Goat's vacuum and she can return to her work, with all the bunny holes now clearly demarcated with fences and bunny signs.
In the concluding story 'Bunny Tails', the bunnies are playing hide and seek in a hedge, whilst Mr Goat trims it with his shears. Distracted by a butterfly, Mr Goat's shears remove some bunny tails. 'Now there are bunnies without tails and tails without bunnies'. Our hero, Bear, is once again consulted, this time as he sits in front of his sewing machine sipping a cup of tea. 'Zumm zumm' goes his machine (dont worry though, he is 'very gentle'), the bunnies have a bit of rest and a bedtime story from Bear, and once again they are as good as new.
Boo wanted this book read over and over again when we brought it home from the library. We both found it very funny and the characters very endearing. Boo has an obsession with bears anyway and if they can be seen to be knitting, sewing and washing (things she is very aware of as she sees me doing them frequently) then I think it really fires up her imagination. When I first saw this book I thought it might be too cute, but the absurdity of it balances against that, and the minimal text with sound effects is elegantly done.
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