Ten Little Rabbits

This winner of the Parents Magazine "Best Book of the Year" award is a simple counting book that celebrates Native American culture--and rabbits, of course. Each of Sylvia Long's detailed, painterly double-page illustrations has an old-fashioned quality that gives the book the feel of classic children's literature from the turn of the century. The accompanying text is a simple, rhythmic series of rhyming couplets. "Three busy messengers sending out the news" has three rabbits using one of their blankets to send smoke signals across a grassy river valley; "Four clever trackers looking for some clues" shows intrepid little hunters with bows and arrows examining the enormous paw-print of a bear. After "Ten sleepy weavers knowing day is done," an extra panel shows one rabbit hunched over a campfire while the other nine sleep soundly. A cut above the mass of counting books. (Baby to age 4) --Richard Farr