Alice's Farm: A Rabbit's Tale

by Maryrose Wood

In Maryrose Wood's stunning middle-grade novel, Alice's Farm , a brave young rabbit must work with her natural predators to save her farmland home and secretly help the farm’s earnest but incompetent new owners.

When a new family moves into Prune Street Farm, Alice and the other cottontails are cautious. The new owners are from the city; the family and their dog are not at all what the rabbits expect, and soon Alice is making new friends and doing things no rabbit has done before. When she overhears a plan by a developer to run the family off and bulldoze the farm, Alice comes up with a plan, helped by the farmer’s son, and other animals, including a majestic bald eagle.

Here is a stunning celebration of life, the bitter and the sweet. Alice is some rabbit — a character readers will love for generations to come.

Genres: Middle Grade, Animals, Fantasy, Fiction, Childrens, Audiobook, Family

364 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 1, 2020

About the author

Sending big hugs and loveawoo to all.

I'm so pleased to introduce you to my new book: Alice's Farm, A Rabbit’s Tale. In stores on September 1st; available for preorder now.

Alice is an eastern cottontail. Genus sylvagia, species floridanus. About three pounds full grown, if she makes it that far.

Life at the bottom of the food chain is no picnic! But that doesn’t worry Alice much. She's too busy doing all she can to save her beautiful farmland home—not just for herself, but for all the creatures of the valley between the hills.

Yup, all of ’em! Even that new family of farmers who just moved into the big red
house across the meadow. They don’t know much about farming, being from
the city. They mean well. But they’re easy pickins for the local apex predator (he's a real estate developer, in case you couldn't tell).

But Alice has a plan to help.

Rabbits helping farmers? That’s awfully unusual, isn’t it? Well, you're right
about that, young’un!

Let’s put it this way: Alice is no ordinary rabbit.

With loveawoo,
Maryrose

p.s. — If you could use a little extra pluck and optimism right now, please help yourself to THE SWANBURNE ACADEMY GUIDE TO SHELTERING IN PLACE.

You can download it right here:

www.swanburneacademy.com/freeguide

Reviews

[MissBecka Gee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book!
It's a really cute story with really cute animals and all kinds of other happy shit!!!
My husband and I read this together and we had a lot of giggles throughout.
Thank you so much to my amazing friend Jane for gifting me this book.

[Taylor Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

We relished reading Alice’s Farm together. It is among the best read-alouds we have experienced in the past couple of years. When asked to rate the book on a standard 5-star scale, both kids gave the book 10 stars; it is a clear contender for re-reading and earned a place on our shelf of favorites.
The anthropomorphization of the animal characters was wonderful. Animal characters are a staple of children’s literature, but Maryrose Wood took this trope to a new level, linking natural animal behaviors into the characters, weaving these characteristics into the human behaviors that make the animals relatable. As a result, we learned quite a bit about animals while making these new literary friends.

All the characters, animal and human, were fun to hang out with and get to know. They felt like they were real; like we could talk to them in and out of the book. My daughter was intrigued by Farmer Sally’s experiments in food preservation and wishes she could go for a visit and get some of Sally’s recipes. Once in a coffee shop, I saw a kitschy cup with an antique tractor on it and I contemplated how much Farmer Janis would enjoy that cup. For a split second in that coffee shop, I forgot that Farmer Janis is a fictional character. I don’t know that I can give higher praise to character creation than that.

While reading Alice’s Farm we laughed, worried, discussed, and even got a little weepy at the end. We wanted to know what happened, but we didn’t want it to end. It was a rich book to experience. We have long been fans of Maryrose Wood (sidenote: if you haven’t read The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place, we strongly suggest that you drop everything you are doing right now and go read The Mysterious Howling) and while this book wasn’t The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place, it is a wonderful story in it’s own right.

[Dana Grimes · Rating 5 out of 5]

*EDIT* finally was able to listen to the second half and it did not disappoint! Sweet story about a plucky young rabbit and her determination to help a new family keep their farm. Perfect for those readers that read at a high level but need something a little wholesome.

I was halfway through this audiobook when it had to be returned for the next listener. I NEVER do this but I'm rating it before I finish because it was a pure delight to listen to. I'm back on hold and plan to finish it in "about 5 weeks".

It should have been no surprise that I would love it, as the Incorrigibles still remain in my top 5, but the story is so different and the narrator was a shock at first but wonderful. (No Katherine Kellgren, but really there will never be another as great as her.)

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alice's Farm is a book that begs to be read aloud whether to a classroom or a child at home. This story of animals and humans facing life changes and adversity, finding unlikely allies in one another, is simply charming. Despite the high cute factor, a plus, in my opinion, the book manages to deftly address topics of job loss, financial desperation, prey/predator cycles, and death in a way that is frank and yet, gentle enough for little listeners. Having long been a fan of the Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place series, I was worried that this book might fall short. It was a needless worry. This book is just as good, albeit in an entirely different style.

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this digital ARC in return for a fair and honest review.

[Jennifer Wilkey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely fun. Charming and funny. Also touching. Highly recommend. I love Maryrose Wood. She doesn’t talk down to her readers. I may have reared up a bit at the end as I read it to my kids. My youngest is begging for a sequel.

[Blinn Sheffield · Rating 4 out of 5]

This slow-paced but charming story will appeal to fans of Charlotte's Web. The narrative style is also reminiscent of CS Lewis, so Narnia fans might want to take a look as well.

[Leah · Rating 3 out of 5]

2 stars: Humans
4 stars: Animals

[Staci · Rating 5 out of 5]

My son (age 9) asked me to read this, because he loved reading it last year. It was absolutely charming! Such a sweet story about rabbits and a boy trying to save a farm.

[Kristin · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

I wasn't into this at first, as much as I enjoyed the author's Incorrigible Children series. I kept getting distracted by other books, and I almost DNFed it a couple times. But I'm glad I finished it. It was very charming and clever at times.

Having two little boys now, and being a Christian, I read things like this with them in mind for the future. There's one line about a very minor character having two dads. I'm also unsure about Carl's decision to be a vegetarian (as someone who grew up on a farm, raising animals to eat). But I don't think those two little aspects would prevent me from handing them this one to read someday.

[Libby · Rating 5 out of 5]

This middle grade novel begs to be read aloud. Rabbits and farmers are enemies, right? But one daring young rabbit actually becomes a farmer to help save her meadow home from "the mauler". Memorable human and animal characters fill this tale that begs comparison with "Charlotte's Web" and "Watership Down." The only off-note is that the character Carl is supposed to be a ten-year-old from New York City; he comes across more like a seven or eight year old. But that's a small complaint for book that's destined to become a classic.
Review based on an ARC received through NetGalley.

[Yapha · Rating 5 out of 5]

I did it again. I judged a book by its cover and put off reading it for months and it turned out to be fantastic! I was not excited about talking animals on a farm, and I could not have been more wrong about this book! It is clever and fresh, with some great social commentary and important lessons about farming and taking care of our land. It is also great for younger readers who are reading above grade level and are looking for harder books that don't contain mature themes. Highly recommended for grades 2 & up.

ARC provided by publisher

[Hoover Public Library Kids and Teens · Rating 5 out of 5]

Farmers and rabbits have a great literary history as enemies, but what might they accomplish if they worked together? Wood offers a fanciful twist on Peter Rabbit, toggling between the rabbit world and the human world, tracking a pair of adventurous kits and a young family that has moved from Brooklyn to try their hands at farming. [from School Library Journal]

[Ashley at Reading Themes · Rating 5 out of 5]

My kids and I loved this book on audio. It was humorous and the characters were great.

[Manon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unfortunately, this book wasn't for me. I just couldn't get into the story at all, and I'm unsure what the cause was. It might have been the writing style, or the characters, or the plot, or a mix of them. The premise sounded promising, but unfortunately it did not deliver.

[Cathi Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book fits into my sustainable agriculture theme. A children’s book (think Charlotte’s Web) perhaps a tad predictable but all in all just lovely.

[Christa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read aloud

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

We love the Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place series and so were excited to read Maryrose Wood's newest book. It is NOTHING like her first series but was SO good. I absolutely adored it and would be tempted to read again, all on my own. Highly recommend!

[Faith Elizabeth Hough · Rating 5 out of 5]

Meet the cast of Alice’s Farm: two bold, little rabbits who want to save their burrow and the countryside; a dog named Foxy who makes friends with everyone (from a fox named Doggo and a bald eagle named John Glenn to two little rabbits who he’d never eat due to his prescription diet and glitter tooth chew bones), a city boy who’s not so happy at first about his move to the country, his little sister who gleefully communicates with dog and rabbit and eagle alike–though not so well with adults.

I start with the characters, because each and every character in Alice’s Farm is so tremendously real, creative, and fun. But I could have started with the plot: two little rabbits become farmers in order to save their meadow, eventually enlisting the help of a dog, a fox, a bald eagle, a baby, and a twelve-year-old boy. I mean…talk about original and fun. I read this story aloud to all seven of my children, and all of them capable of speech at the moment begged me to keep reading any time I had to stop. Even my teenager was on tenterhooks, wondering what would happen next, and my three-year-old was so delighted by the baby who talks to animals that she emphatically tried to convince us that she could, as well.

But if I didn’t start with characters and I didn’t start with plot, I’d have to start with themes. The beautiful motif that is the heart of Alice’s Farm is care for our common home. As it turns out, that theme is also at the heart of the conservation course I planned for my high school freshman this year, in which we’re reading Pope Francis’ Laudato Si’ and working through an online class from National Geographic. What a delightful surprise to find in the pages of a middle grade novel the very ideas and themes we’d been reading in an encyclical and hearing from top conservationists.

A final point I’d like to make is that Alice’s Farm is one of the few books I’ve read that shows homeschooling in what I’ll call an accurate light. There’s a very common, but offensive trope out there: child is homeschooled because parents are weird/abusive/afraid or the child has some handicap or mental health issue, but in the feel-good happy ending, he or she eventually learns to embrace the real school world and actually (gasp!) make friends. This is so, so, so damaging to how people see homeschoolers. It’s so untrue (or at least extremely rare). It’s completely discriminatory and biased as well. Alice’s Farm paints a picture of homeschooling I’ve actually encountered. Carl’s growth from city boy who likes school but hates learning to a farmer who dives into learning and feels confident in his own skin is a narrative I’ve seen happen in real life, thanks to homeschooling. Without ever putting down traditional schooling, Maryrose Wood showed how homeschooling–for the right person at the right time–is a true blessing.

Those thousands of you new to homeschooling this year might see a lot of yourselves in Carl’s experiences. I’ve yet to find a published book that accurately portrays the homeschool life my children and I live–one where homeschooling is normal and second nature, where there’s no learning curve or adjustment. Many real life country kid homeschoolers might wonder where the watercolor paints and nature walks and giant stacks of 19th century classics are in this story. But those new to homeschooling will likely identify with both of the worlds Carl finds himself grappling with; on one hand, the mentions of hashtags and social media, a friend with two dads, or Carl’s love for the now-forbidden video games he and his friends used to play (unfortunately, some of this felt a little forced and jarring, slightly marring an otherwise classic-feeling book); on the other hand a mother who’s banned processed foods and buys shelves full of “curriculum” to encourage independent study.

While all my kids enjoyed this, the talking animals make it scream early middle grade–but the length and vocabulary might make it hard for the targeted readers to enjoy on their own. My best recommendation is to enjoy it as a read aloud and conversation starter together.

[Brooklin S · Rating 5 out of 5]

So good!
I kind of want to be a farmer now!

[Ariane · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.8 delightful

[London · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kids loved the book. The plot was fairly predictable. LGBTQ one-liners

[Christine (Tina) · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an endearing tale! The characterization of the animals, redolent of Charlotte's Web...the story of change - city to country...life as a farmer, life in nature, the cruelty of what happens after nature is bulldozed over for shiny, unnecessary objects and why we should he reluctant to allow that to occur as frequently as it does...a children's book with more heart and soul and funny moments than any adult work may produce!

High praise for a brilliant read!

[Suzanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this to be a truly delightful book. The earliest chapters reminded me a bit of Rabbit Hill, which I'd read aloud to my kids earlier in the year (and honestly found the story to be a bit sleepy), but to my relief the similarities between the two novels soon faded. The humans play a much more prominent role in this story, and a broader cast of animal characters is developed with so much more personality and spunk. The primary characters are Alice, a rather extraordinary rabbit who decides to become a farmer to help save their country home from "the mauler" (that is, the machinery that will come if a certain greedy land developer gets his way); Carl, an NYC kid turned farm kid who is drawn into the rabbit's scheme and ends up becoming quite the farmer himself; and Foxy, the family's confident and spunky Shiba Inu, who acts as guard for the rabbits and liaison between the humans and animals.

I'm excited to read this one aloud to my kids in a few years. They are 7 now, and while there's nothing in this novel that I would deem "inappropriate" for them at this age, there's quite a bit of humor and relational nuance I think they'd miss right now, references that would go over their heads, and things I'd just end up having to pause the story and explain to them. Carl is 10 in the story, so I'll use that as my age guide.

[Lauren K. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent, excellent story. If you are fans of other Maryrose Wood books (Incorrigible Children), you’ll love this one, too. She has such a witty writing style! You’ll find yourself re-reading phrases and sentences just to relish the clever wordplay. The thing I love about Wood’s stories is they are not only entertaining, they are also educational and mind-opening. She uses humor and wit to deliver some cognitive zingers that make you really stop and consider her point. She reminds me of Terry Pratchett in that way (that is just about the biggest literary compliment I can give!).

And for the more sensitive, her discussion of death is very gentle. She won’t have you bawling, nearly unable to read aloud for trying to choke down the lump in your throat, like the end of Charlotte’s Web, but she will leave you with a satisfied, somber, and content feeling of a really well-told tale. I appreciated how throughout the story she helped the reader/listener understand that rabbit culture isn’t the same as human culture. And if the point of considering perspectives different from your own lived experiences wasn’t obvious enough, she does explicitly discuss it through Carl’s own reflections toward the end.

I’m hoping that “Use your ears, use your nose!” will become an inside family joke, like calling all squirrels Nutsawoo and calling me Mamawoo. I can’t wait for her to write more books!

[jeannine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVED this book!! It made me talk to all of the rabbits in my yard (and still do!) as well as talk my husband into planting a garden JUST for the rabbits (and their friends). This was a heartwarming tale similar to Charlotte's Web or Babe. I loved the idea of how rabbits communicate and also loved, loved, loved the addition of such expansive vocabulary. "Applesauce"'s vocabulary brought back fond memories of "Lumawooooo". I love the way she writes, I love the stories she weaves and the relationship between all of the characters. Could EASILY see this becoming the next 'Babe' CGI film...with Morgan Freeman as Lester!! Or Kevin Costner!!

[Ayacchi · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first chapters were so so, since I didn't know where the story is heading to. Turned out, it's something unexpected!

Ever since no one knows when, rabbits are farmer's enemy. They steal vegetables and ruin the garden. But Alice's Farm is about an extraordinary rabbits doing things no rabbit ever done. Farming.

The more I read the more I found this book exciting and interesting. I like how our rabbit farmers work so hard to avoid the Mauler, how they make friends and allies, do deals with other animals (cottontail is good at multiplying, they claimed). I like how our little humans accept this unusual event and take part in it.

The climax is so thrilling. The reveals, the appearance of the one-and-only annoying man, and the fight, and the.. d word. I'm with Carl who is sad for Worm. I know from the animals and farmers point of view, it is something common and relieving. But still, it's all about food chains and it's sad to know how one ends.

This book deserves more readers!!

[Katherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a bit of a "slow burn" for me, but definitely grew on me as I listened (as those who knew me in high school will tell you - I'm always a sucker for a good story about rabbits ;) ). It reminded me, in some ways/places, of "Charlotte's Web," so I wasn't surprised when she mentioned the classic as an inspiration for this story. I can see this being a fantastic family/classroom book (to read aloud or listen together - the narrator was fantastic!) and hope to enjoy this with my kids in the future. A sweet, delightful story with memorable characters and a classic feel. (Also, if you listen to the audiobook, the interview between the author and narrator was an excellent addition and made the novel feel even more relevant!).

[Pam Carlson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Carl's naïve parents buy a farm with absolutely no knowledge of how to make a living as farmers. Almost immediately, a hiss-boo evil land developer tries to buy them out. Little by little, they figure things out but the true heroes are the first inhabitants of the land - the rabbits - led by clever Alice. She makes alliances with animals and birds, including a bald eagle, in order to make a success of the large garden. She is also aided by Carl's dog Foxy and his little sister, Marie, before figuring out how to communicate with Carl. He catches on quickly and discovers he actually has a knack for gardening. The sweet taste of animal/human success will please fans of Watership Down and Charlotte's Web. Relish this tale as you gain new respect for toddlers.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

When a new human family moves into the farm near where they live, brave Alice the rabbit organizes a variety of animals in an effort to help the city family succeed as farmers in hopes of staving off a developer. It is told from the alternating perspectives of the animals and the humans, who aren't quite sure what is going on in their garden. Along the way, readers learn some new vocabulary words, about wildlife monitoring, and about the challenges of being a small farmer. I found Alice's Farm to be a charming story with some laugh out loud moments.

I received a free review copy of Alice's Farm through Goodreads Giveaways.

[Diana · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5
This was a sweet, informative and engaging story of a Brooklyn family who move to a farm without much experience. The rabbits and chipmunks along with other animals help the family with the farm and a strong relationship is built between their son Carl, the family dog Foxy and the rabbits. Informative about climate change, endangered species and cohabitation between the animal world and the human world. I loved it!