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The Rhyming Rabbit
The Rhyming Rabbit loves to make up entertaining poems, inspired by everything he sees, but the other rabbits don’t appreciate his talent for rhyme. Sad and lonely, the Rhyming Rabbit sets off one starry night all on his own – will he ever find someone to share his poems with?
The Rhyming Rabbit is a clever rhyming adventure from the stellar picture book partnership of Julia Donaldson and Lydia Monks, creators of What the Ladybird Heard. With brilliant rhyming verse, bright and distinctive illustrations and a gorgeously glittery cover, this story is a delight to read aloud.
The Rhyming Rabbit is a clever rhyming adventure from the stellar picture book partnership of Julia Donaldson and Lydia Monks, creators of What the Ladybird Heard. With brilliant rhyming verse, bright and distinctive illustrations and a gorgeously glittery cover, this story is a delight to read aloud.
24 pages, Board Book
First published January 1, 2011
11 people are currently reading
196 people want to read
About the author
Julia Donaldson
1,232 books1,911 followersGrowing up
I grew up in a tall Victorian London house with my parents, grandmother, aunt, uncle, younger sister Mary and cat Geoffrey (who was really a prince in disguise. Mary and I would argue about which of us would marry him).
Mary and I were always creating imaginary characters and mimicking real ones, and I used to write shows and choreograph ballets for us. A wind-up gramophone wafted out Chopin waltzes.
I studied Drama and French at Bristol University, where I met Malcolm, a guitar-playing medic to whom I’m now married.
Busking and books
Before Malcolm and I had our three sons we used to go busking together and I would write special songs for each country; the best one was in Italian about pasta.
The busking led to a career in singing and songwriting, mainly for children’s television. I became an expert at writing to order on such subjects as guinea pigs, window-cleaning and horrible smells. “We want a song about throwing crumpled-up wrapping paper into the bin” was a typical request from the BBC.
I also continued to write “grown-up” songs and perform them in folk clubs and on the radio, and have recently released two CDs of these songs.
One of my television songs, A SQUASH AND A SQUEEZE, was made into a book in 1993, with illustrations by the wonderful Axel Scheffler. It was great to hold the book in my hand without it vanishing in the air the way the songs did. This prompted me to unearth some plays I’d written for a school reading group, and since then I’ve had 20 plays published. Most children love acting and it’s a tremendous way to improve their reading.
My real breakthrough was THE GRUFFALO, again illustrated by Axel. We work separately - he’s in London and I’m in Glasgow - but he sends me letters with lovely funny pictures on the envelopes.
I really enjoy writing verse, even though it can be fiendishly difficult. I used to memorise poems as a child and it means a lot to me when parents tell me their child can recite one of my books.
Funnily enough, I find it harder to write not in verse, though I feel I am now getting the hang of it! My novel THE GIANTS AND THE JONESES is going to be made into a film by the same team who made the Harry Potter movies, and I have written three books of stories about the anarchic PRINCESS MIRROR-BELLE who appears from the mirror and disrupts the life of an otherwise ordinary eight-year-old. I have just finished writing a novel for teenagers.
When I’m not writing I am often performing, at book festivals and in theatres. I really enjoy getting the children in the audience to help me act out the stories and sing the songs. When Malcolm can take time off from the hospital he and his guitar come too. and it feels as if we’ve come full circle - back to busking.
I grew up in a tall Victorian London house with my parents, grandmother, aunt, uncle, younger sister Mary and cat Geoffrey (who was really a prince in disguise. Mary and I would argue about which of us would marry him).
Mary and I were always creating imaginary characters and mimicking real ones, and I used to write shows and choreograph ballets for us. A wind-up gramophone wafted out Chopin waltzes.
I studied Drama and French at Bristol University, where I met Malcolm, a guitar-playing medic to whom I’m now married.
Busking and books
Before Malcolm and I had our three sons we used to go busking together and I would write special songs for each country; the best one was in Italian about pasta.
The busking led to a career in singing and songwriting, mainly for children’s television. I became an expert at writing to order on such subjects as guinea pigs, window-cleaning and horrible smells. “We want a song about throwing crumpled-up wrapping paper into the bin” was a typical request from the BBC.
I also continued to write “grown-up” songs and perform them in folk clubs and on the radio, and have recently released two CDs of these songs.
One of my television songs, A SQUASH AND A SQUEEZE, was made into a book in 1993, with illustrations by the wonderful Axel Scheffler. It was great to hold the book in my hand without it vanishing in the air the way the songs did. This prompted me to unearth some plays I’d written for a school reading group, and since then I’ve had 20 plays published. Most children love acting and it’s a tremendous way to improve their reading.
My real breakthrough was THE GRUFFALO, again illustrated by Axel. We work separately - he’s in London and I’m in Glasgow - but he sends me letters with lovely funny pictures on the envelopes.
I really enjoy writing verse, even though it can be fiendishly difficult. I used to memorise poems as a child and it means a lot to me when parents tell me their child can recite one of my books.
Funnily enough, I find it harder to write not in verse, though I feel I am now getting the hang of it! My novel THE GIANTS AND THE JONESES is going to be made into a film by the same team who made the Harry Potter movies, and I have written three books of stories about the anarchic PRINCESS MIRROR-BELLE who appears from the mirror and disrupts the life of an otherwise ordinary eight-year-old. I have just finished writing a novel for teenagers.
When I’m not writing I am often performing, at book festivals and in theatres. I really enjoy getting the children in the audience to help me act out the stories and sing the songs. When Malcolm can take time off from the hospital he and his guitar come too. and it feels as if we’ve come full circle - back to busking.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews
December 31, 2019
Heard the audiobook as David Tennant narrated it!
December 1, 2019
I feel no shame adding this book of Noah's... as it has a surprising amount of words (and poetry!) and I've read it approximately 100 billion times.
August 14, 2015
‘The Rhyming Rabbit’ is a short story detailing, as the title suggests, the adventures of a rabbit who speaks solely in rhyme. The Rhyming Rabbit is shunned by his rabbit community because of his constant poems so decides to set off on an adventure; meeting many friends along the way and making poems for them. Unfortunately no one seems to share the Rhyming Rabbit’s passion for poetry and he becomes increasingly lonely and isolated… Until he meets a gifted sheep who also has a talent for rhymes. Together they recite poems to each other until it is time for the Rhyming Rabbit to go back home to his burrow and family.
This book was very enjoyable to read and the beautiful illustrations capture the imagination of the reader. The Rhyming Rabbit as a character is very loveable and Donaldson manages to address some serious issues that children may face all within a light-hearted setting, for example that of loneliness and sense of belonging. It does however contain some quite complex rhyme schemes that younger children may find confusing.
The appropriate age range for this book would be between 5-6 years and could be used in the classroom as a good example of poetry for an English module based on creative writing, or could be used as an SEN resource in a 1:1 setting to encourage students with speech and language difficulties to pronounce words in the correct manner by forming word-sound links with the rhymes.
This book was very enjoyable to read and the beautiful illustrations capture the imagination of the reader. The Rhyming Rabbit as a character is very loveable and Donaldson manages to address some serious issues that children may face all within a light-hearted setting, for example that of loneliness and sense of belonging. It does however contain some quite complex rhyme schemes that younger children may find confusing.
The appropriate age range for this book would be between 5-6 years and could be used in the classroom as a good example of poetry for an English module based on creative writing, or could be used as an SEN resource in a 1:1 setting to encourage students with speech and language difficulties to pronounce words in the correct manner by forming word-sound links with the rhymes.
January 28, 2020
This was really cute! I loved how the rabbit at the centre of this story chooses to spout poetry at every opportunity, often very barely escaping danger in the process. I am planning to read this to my Year 3 pupils (age 7-8) at the beginning of our unit on poetry, especially as so many of them suffer a crisis in confidence when it comes to writing poetry rather than prose.
3.5 stars.
3.5 stars.
April 5, 2021
Libby was given this book by her Auntie Helen and Uncle Craig for Easter.
This is a super cute story about a rabbit who loves to make rhymes and does it to the point of irritating those around him, so he heads out to find someone who appreciates his poetry and finds a kindred soul.
This is quite wordy so probably for children older than my 2 and a half year old but if they have the attention span, younger kids might enjoy hearing the rhymes. Libby was distracted on our 1st read (too much Easter chocolate!) but she seemed to enjoy the book as I read it again. She’s really into colours at the moment so was pointing out all the bright colours in the book.
I need to go back and reread all of the supplementary material that was included in the edition we have - it’s a 10th anniversary special so features an author introduction and some sketches from the illustrator too.
This is a super cute story about a rabbit who loves to make rhymes and does it to the point of irritating those around him, so he heads out to find someone who appreciates his poetry and finds a kindred soul.
This is quite wordy so probably for children older than my 2 and a half year old but if they have the attention span, younger kids might enjoy hearing the rhymes. Libby was distracted on our 1st read (too much Easter chocolate!) but she seemed to enjoy the book as I read it again. She’s really into colours at the moment so was pointing out all the bright colours in the book.
I need to go back and reread all of the supplementary material that was included in the edition we have - it’s a 10th anniversary special so features an author introduction and some sketches from the illustrator too.
November 26, 2019
Rhyming rabbit is the only rabbit in his family that loves to make poems for every ocassion. He makes a poem everywhere. None of the other rabbits understand him so he decides to dig one day and see if he could find someone who would appreciate his poems. He runs into different animals and even makes a poem for them a worm, a mole but none of them appreciated his poems. He kept digging and when he thought all hope was lost he made a poem that not even him could finish until another voice helped him finish his poem. The other voice was a sheep that loved to make poems just like him! Oh rabbit was so happy and had so much fun with sheep make new poems but it was getting late and he had to return to his family but he would be back he told sheep.
March 12, 2020
So I was on a bit of a roll of giving Donaldson's books 5/5, until I got to this one.
Not a fan of the illustrations and storyline is seriously lacking.
It feels a bit like Donaldson had lots of half-hearted poems about animals which she has chucked into a book about a rabbit who rhymes. Also, the other characters are all unnecessarily harsh to Rhyming Rabbit which could quite easily be misconstrued by children that poetry is wrong or boring. On top of that, the ending is dull, dull, dull.
If you're a Julia Donaldson fan, give this one a miss. Stick to her pieces of genius with Axel Scheffler (oh and 'The Paper Dolls' with Rebecca Cobb is pretty good too!)
Not a fan of the illustrations and storyline is seriously lacking.
It feels a bit like Donaldson had lots of half-hearted poems about animals which she has chucked into a book about a rabbit who rhymes. Also, the other characters are all unnecessarily harsh to Rhyming Rabbit which could quite easily be misconstrued by children that poetry is wrong or boring. On top of that, the ending is dull, dull, dull.
If you're a Julia Donaldson fan, give this one a miss. Stick to her pieces of genius with Axel Scheffler (oh and 'The Paper Dolls' with Rebecca Cobb is pretty good too!)
March 1, 2019
Rabbit feels like no one understands his love of poetry until at last he makes friends with a rhyming sheep. There are a number of short poems in the book and I can see it being useful in a classroom. I liked the centipede poem best (Miss 4 likes the sparkly glitter best).
Miss 4 and I like to explore different books and authors at the library, sometimes around particular topics or themes. We try to get different ones out every week or so; it's fun for both of us to have the variety and to look at a mix of new & favourite authors.
Miss 4 and I like to explore different books and authors at the library, sometimes around particular topics or themes. We try to get different ones out every week or so; it's fun for both of us to have the variety and to look at a mix of new & favourite authors.
September 28, 2019
A funny book about a rabbit with a passion for speaking in rhyme, he doesn't fit in with the other rabbits but he learns to accept this and finds a friend in another animals with similar talents who appreciates him. Young children will enjoy this book and learn about individuality. The glitter detail on each page is a lovely addition and appears when rabbit makes up a poem, showing that his talent is special and should be celebrated.
January 4, 2019
This book follows a rabbit who loves to rhyme, making up rhymes about everything and everyone. This book has so much rhyming that I think it is slightly too advanced for young children. I have read this to an early years class many times, and each time the children lose engagement. I don't think the story flows very well, not my favourite from Julia Donaldson.
October 18, 2022
This book follows a Rabbit's poetic journey while interacting with animals who disapproved of his rhymes until one day, he runs into the rhyme-making sheep! A wonderful picture book wit detailed illustrations by Julia Donaldson! This poetry book also introduces children to writing techniques like rhythm and poetry while encouraging conversations about friendship and shared interests.
October 22, 2018
This is a great picture book about a little rabbit who loves to make up poems about everything and everyone. Quite a lot of poetry for that matter, it may be a little too much to keep younger readers engaged.
January 30, 2019
The rhyming rabbit would be a good book for encouraging children to learn about alteration and how to use rhyming in a story. The book would be most appropriate for reception children and the book could be used to help teachers encourage children to make up their own rhyming stories of animals.
January 6, 2020
This is cute...it is for sure no Gruffalo. I like that it isn't a rhyming picture book but a picture book with distinct rhyming (poetry) sections. The glitter is cute and so far isn't making a giant mess.
February 24, 2021
We enjoyed this. It’s a good story about feeling lonely and finding a friend with similar interests. Though we didn’t go into it, it has a variety of rhyming patterns and would make a great book for teaching different ways to write poetry because of that. Maddie loved the glitter.
November 30, 2025
As much as I love other books, by Julia Donaldson, that I've read so far, this sadly didn't work. Narration + music is difficult to combine, and in this audio book, the music makes it almost impossible for neurodivergent kids to concentrate at all.
September 16, 2018
Great book about being true to yourself, finding someone who truly appreciates you, and how great and simple poetry can be!
April 10, 2019
Poor rabbit, not everyone appreciates his love for making up poems. Such an endearing and fun story with great illustrations and just the right amount of glitter.
September 6, 2019
I love this picture book. The rhyming is fascinating. The pictures are really cute and the storyline is understandable even for the smaller childeren.
October 21, 2019
An adventure of a rabbit who has a passion for rhyming. Would be great to use with children to help them with creative writing.
July 2, 2020
Donaldson, mutta ilman Scheffleriä. Toimi tämäkin ja riimittelyt olivat hauskoja.
November 25, 2020
詩をつくるのがとにかく大好きな子うさぎさん。何をみてもすぐ詩にして詠いだす彼に両親も兄弟達もあきれ顔。誰にも楽しさを理解してもらえない。
しかし、ついに一緒に詩を読んでくれるトモダチを見つけ、こうさぎちゃんは幸せなきもちに満たされる。
デイビッド・テナントの朗読がとんでもなく可愛らしく、聴いているとついついにやけてきてしまいます。
しかし、ついに一緒に詩を読んでくれるトモダチを見つけ、こうさぎちゃんは幸せなきもちに満たされる。
デイビッド・テナントの朗読がとんでもなく可愛らしく、聴いているとついついにやけてきてしまいます。
January 1, 2023
My two daughter love the rhythm and rhyme of this story and request it at bedtime often
April 21, 2023
Normally like Julia's book but this rabbit is annoying.
November 25, 2023
コンセプトは好きだが、リズムがあまり良くない
June 4, 2024
Read it to my Reception Class and they loved it. I loved doing the different voices and reading the different poems as well.
March 1, 2025
A very cute story about a rabbit who loves to compose poems, and his warren who don't understand him.
July 24, 2025
This one didn’t grab the family’s attention as much as others. I liked the rhyming aspect of it as a lesson.
August 24, 2011
This book is the story of a rabbit who likes to make up poems about his surroundings and events that happen to him. Unfortunately for him, none of his family or friends appreciates his rhymes. They find it annoying when he recites his poetry aloud as they try to sleep so the Rhyming Rabbit decides to dig himself a long burrow and set off on a night time adventure, reciting poetry as he goes.
In the burrow he meets a worm and a mole but they too don’t appreciate his rhymes. It’s not until he digs his way out of the earth and into a field where he meets a friendly sheep that he finally finds a friend who likes rhymes as much as he does. The Rhyming Rabbit and the sheep spend the whole night and the next day making up new rhymes together. When he has to leave, the Rhyming Rabbit vows to return again the next day to see his new friend.
I liked this book because of the clear and colourful pictures throughout. In fact, the colourful cover of the book was what attracted me to it when I first saw it on the library shelf. I think these pictures and the glitter on each of the pages would make it easy for young children to become engaged with the story and easy for them to follow the rabbit’s adventure. Also I think that in a classroom setting, the pages are large enough that the book could be held up while the teacher is reading it aloud so the children could easily see the story in the images.
The rhyming throughout the story was also something I enjoyed about it. I thought it was fun and that the simplicity of these rhymes will help build a foundation for poetry in the classroom later on.
In the burrow he meets a worm and a mole but they too don’t appreciate his rhymes. It’s not until he digs his way out of the earth and into a field where he meets a friendly sheep that he finally finds a friend who likes rhymes as much as he does. The Rhyming Rabbit and the sheep spend the whole night and the next day making up new rhymes together. When he has to leave, the Rhyming Rabbit vows to return again the next day to see his new friend.
I liked this book because of the clear and colourful pictures throughout. In fact, the colourful cover of the book was what attracted me to it when I first saw it on the library shelf. I think these pictures and the glitter on each of the pages would make it easy for young children to become engaged with the story and easy for them to follow the rabbit’s adventure. Also I think that in a classroom setting, the pages are large enough that the book could be held up while the teacher is reading it aloud so the children could easily see the story in the images.
The rhyming throughout the story was also something I enjoyed about it. I thought it was fun and that the simplicity of these rhymes will help build a foundation for poetry in the classroom later on.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews