Shadrach (Harper Trophy Books)

Davie wants a little black rabbit, and he wants one badly. Fortunately, his grandfather has promised him one. While waiting for it to arrive, he wonders what he should name it. Satan? Too sinister. Shoe Polish? Too sticky. Night? No good. Lily of the Valley? Too white. Finally, he decides to name his future rabbit Shadrach after one of the three young men in the Bible that "old Nebuchadnezzar in the old testament had tossed into the fiery furnace." No doubt about it, Davie is obsessed.

Davie's almost religious zeal for his soon-to-be pet, of whom he sings, "fairest of ten thousand to my soul," doesn't fade with the arrival of the actual rabbit. "To think he'd had Shadrach two weeks now! It was almost unbelievable, and it was still a miracle. Every morning you woke up it was a miracle all over again, that there in a barn across the Dutch village sat a little rabbit, and he was yours. Something breathing, nibbling, hopping, and it was yours! In all the world it was yours. It was alive, and it was yours!" Any child who has ever cried with happiness to have a pet will completely understand young Davie's emotions. Meindert Dejong, award-winning author of Newbery Medalist The Wheel on the School and The House of Sixty Fathers, has created a strikingly emotional novel for young readers, perfectly complemented by the illustrations of Maurice Sendak. (Ages 9 to 12)