The Magic Hare

by Lynne Reid Banks, Barry Moser (Illustrator)

For everyone who loves magic, here are the delightful tales of a wild and wonderful animal who is clever enough to outwit giants and dragons,greedy kings and bad-tempered queens, but caring enough to help those in trouble, even if he has to travel to the moon. The only thing he never is, is boring. You'll read these stories again and again, and never, ever forget The Magic Hare .

Genres: Fiction, Childrens, Animals, Picture Books

64 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Lynne Reid Banks is a British author of books for children and adults. She has written forty books, including the best-selling children's novel The Indian in the Cupboard, which has sold over 10 million copies and been made into a film.
Banks was born in London, the only child of James and Muriel Reid Banks. She was evacuated to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada during World War II but returned after the war was over. She attended St Teresa's School in Surrey. Prior to becoming a writer Banks was an actress, and also worked as a television journalist in Britain, one of the first women to do so. Her first novel, The L-Shaped Room, was published in 1960.
In 1962 Banks emigrated to Israel, where she taught for eight years on an Israeli kibbutz Yasur. In 1965 she married Chaim Stephenson, with whom she had three sons. Although the family returned to England in 1971 and Banks now lives in Dorset, the influence of her time in Israel can be seen in some of her books which are set partially or mainly on kibbutzim.

Reviews

[Capn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I only really liked the harebell etymological tale, and even then it wasn't stellar. And that the black and white witch was trying to patch the hole in the ozone layer. Some of the stories I actively disliked (The Hare and the Giants, especially).
Meh. Bugs Bunny did it all better. I might have to watch the Looney Tunes Wagner tribute, again.. any excuse, really. Kill the Wabbit, Kill the Wabbit,..!

[🌶 peppersocks 🧦 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reflections and lessons learned:
“You did such lovely jumps," whispered the flower.
"And you helped those silly moths. And then, just now ..
"Yes?" pressed the hare, who loved to hear himself praised.
"You helped that little cat. You're always helping," it went on in its shy, whispering
voice.
“I do my best, of course”, said the hare, scratching his ear. "I didn't think anyone had noticed, particularly."
"I did." murmured the flower.
"Well, that's very nice," said the hare. "I mean, one likes to be appreciated."

Fables, fables, fables, with fabulous illustrations! I do enjoy an old skool style tail… 🥁

[Felix · Rating 1 out of 5]

Nightmare fuel.

[Sam · Rating 2 out of 5]

The introduction was more irresistible than the rest of the book. Little specks of wit and creativity almost satisfied me, but they were so few and far between. Perhaps had I not enjoyed the intro so much....sigh.....akin to the disappointment when you see a so-so movie after rave reviews.

[Celia · Rating 2 out of 5]

You're reading along, minding your own business. Sure, the stories are quirky and brief with minimal development. There are only 49 pages for 10 stories, each with a full-page illustration. Surely nothing groundbreaking could happen after 33 pages of mostly nonsense plots and characters saved from every type of scrape by a completely inexplicable magic hare. Then...

WHAMO.

You unsuspectingly stumble across one of the early proto-woke stories (1993!) where you find out that all along, the hitherto wise and ethical hare (Except for getting that one giant to commit suicide. Oh, and giving that poor orphan trauma so she never eats meat again. Okay, there were signs.) is suddenly revealed to have—you guessed it!—internalized racism. Toward black humans. As a hare. Oh, and witches are mostly good, and black magic is the good kind and white magic is the bad kind bEcaUse raCisM!!! And witches, who are pretty much all good, don't usually put curses (white magic) on people they don't like since they're actually trying to fix the hole in the ozone layer (black magic) to save everyone.

I kid you not.

I cannot express to you how much I despise this reversal of ethics and morals in CHILDREN'S BOOKS. Kids have no defenses against this mind-melting propaganda. Exposing kids to "if it makes you feel good, it is good" and "if it makes you feel bad, it is bad" ethics is how we wind up with a significant percentage of the female population of the United States protecting a woman who killed her own sweet children.

Hard pass. I got this book free, and it is going in the TRASH.

(Also, in this edition at least, the illustration of the vampire is FREAKY as heck!)

[Cheryl · Rating 2 out of 5]

The last story, in which the hare ponders the appropriate use of his magic, is the best. The others are awfully forgettable. Moser's art is less appealing than it ought to be, given what he's capable of.

It's the size of a large picture-book, but each of the tales is at least as much text as in a normal pb... meaning, this isn't for tots but rather for independent readers.

I might have liked it more when I was a child... but I think not.

[Juli Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wacky, bur surprisingly delightful.

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

The stories are short, cute, and funny! I especially liked "The Hare with the Diamond Tail."

[Elaine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kinda cute, but not that interesting. Just read it because there's a hare, and they're related to rabbits, so I thought the kids would like it. They liked it alright, but wasn't great. The hare fixes everything by magic. Kinda too easy.

[Ksenia]

well abit of childich but i feel that this book is good i like the author Lynne reid banks so that was te reason i chose this book!!!

[Zanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I adored this book and read it over and over

[Mariah H · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought it was a pretty good book to pass the time.

[Jennifer Heise · Rating 3 out of 5]

Classic Hare-as-Trickster stories.

[scarlettraces · Rating 3 out of 5]

(3.5)

[Anthony Faber · Rating 3 out of 5]

Young kids' book. A bunch of fables. Very lightweight reading.