In Nest and Fetch, Jorey Hurley tells simple animal stories with pictures punctuated by single words, and Hop--a wonderfully close study of a mother cottontail rabbit and her three bunnies--echoes that concept.
In the first spread, featuring the single word "hop," the mother rabbit hops out of a hole at the base of a tree into a sea of spring-green grass and pastel wildflowers in order to declare the all-clear for her babies. Then: "listen." Readers can almost sense the mother's ears quivering, alert, while the babies stay hidden in their tree nest. As they leap out in single file into the meadow to join her, the encapsulating verb is "follow." One of the best aspects of this minimalist format is that it leaves room for lots of interaction when reading it aloud: "What do you think the mother rabbit is listening for?" "Where do you think the bunnies might be going?" (Bonus: An informative author's note may answer some of the questions about rabbit behavior.) The rabbits "nibble" and "play" until--"freeze"--a red-tailed hawk soars ominously above. A fox creeps stealthily toward them through the grass. Run! Hide! Here, the rabbit family is shown huddling in a borrowed burrow, with a couple of earthworm tunnels nearby for good measure. The sparkling eyes and expressive ears and whiskers of the attentive rabbits--reflecting the joy of grazing or the fear of predators--take center stage in the clean, bold compositions.
All ends well when the bunnies go home to snuggle and sleep, the perfect ending to any bedtime story. --Karin Snelson, children's editor, Shelf Awareness