The Little Blue Rabbit

by Angela McAllister, Jason Cockcroft (Illustrator)

This extraordinarily beautiful bedtime book, a gentle twist on the classic lost-toy story, features an irresistible plush rabbit.

Blue Rabbit is loved by his Boy, and everything seems fine until one night Boy doesn't come to his bed where Blue Rabbit sleeps with him every night. The other stuffed animals help Blue Rabbit search the house, but they find only a sign of the boy at all.

Finally, nearly inconsolable, Blue Rabbit hides away in the bed to cry. Then suddenly an eye peeks under the covers and it is Boy! Since he is browner and his clothes have shrunk, Blue Rabbit assumes that "he must have been left out in the garden in the rain."

Of course, he has been away on a summer vacation, and though he seems a bit different, when they hug each other tight, Blue Rabbit knows his Boy hasn't really changed at all, "for he was still soft and warm and stuffed with love."

Genres: Picture Books, Rabbits

32 pages, Hardcover

First published April 30, 2003

About the author

Angela McAllister is an award- winning author of over eighty books for children, including picture books, junior fiction, non-fiction and novels. Her work has been adapted for the stage and is widely used in schools. It has been translated into more than twenty languages. She lives in the south of England.

Reviews

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a sweet gem of a book.

I *might* have scored this book slightly higher because the little boy in the illustrations looks so much like my little boy, and the rabbit looks quite a bit like his Jelly Cat Rabbit. And I *might* have changed the names from "Boy" to "Thomas", and "Little Blue Rabbit" to "Jelly Cat Rabbit" and a consequence of the resemblance. But the story is still very sweet, and surprisingly novel. There are many, many books about lost toys or objects, but I don't know of any other book that turns the situation around.

[Alana · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is so cute and so sad all at the same time. It's about a stuffed rabbit that thinks he's lost his boy because one day he's just not there. This book will tug at your heartstrings as you read because it will remind you of losing your own toy or blanket or what your kids are feeling. It's really nicely illustrated too.

[Olivia S · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was okay. Kind of a sad story about a stuffed toy rabbit who thinks he's lost his Boy. He's depressed through most of the book, despite the other toys' efforts to keep him company. Boy ends up returning from his holiday and Blue Rabbit is cheered up again. I like how this book reverses the positions of toy and boy, but overall it's a bit of a bummer. Would need to be an older kid to sit still for all the text and the muted pictures. 6+

[Gwyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can tell a book is good when my son gets so into it that he worries for the main character. The story for this book is just too cute and the rabbit is such a great character for kids to relate to.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

42 months -

[Heather · Rating 2 out of 5]

A little "dark" for a toddler but he got excited about the bunny. Not wild about the illustrations - too loose and speckled for my son's vision.