Mini Rabbit Not Lost

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As he charges off, he doesn’t hear Mother Rabbit say there are plenty of juicy berries on the bush underneath their tree house. Instead, he hurtles through fields and woods, rows across the sea to a lighthouse and even scales a snowy mountain in his fervent search for fruit. How often have we seen kids (or even us as adults) say “no thank you” to someone who has offered to help? Well, John Bond again captures this in how he reveals that others often see our plight before we do. This book seems to be about how sometimes we have to take that journey to figure it out for ourselves – as difficult as it may be. Once you have read something you should talk about it! Find someone to talk to about what happened in the story and maybe answer these questions: You might want to draw your cake then write your recipe, or the other way around. But your picture should be mouth-watering!

Mini Rabbit’s blind enthusiasm for completing the cake takes him right past obvious solutions. I love that the berries are right below, but he’s off and the quest to find berries is on. Hop little bunnies, hop, hop, hop, Hop little bunnies hop hop hop, Hop little bunnies hop hop hop hop hop hop now stop Hailing from a small farm in the Cotswolds, John studied a degree in Illustration at Kingston University, London. He went on to spend 7 years working for an award winning creative agency, designing and directing a multitude of projects for broadcast, digital, and interactive.For me it’s a rollercoaster of emotions that I’m trying to manipulate the reader into’ - Alex Wheatle on fictional world building, creating new language and seeing yourself in a book I sure hope NOT LOST isn’t the only Mini Rabbit book that John Bond is going to do. I really enjoy this character John has created and how well he captured the enthusiasm a child can have when given the chance to help. For me, that’s the “thing” I want to really take away from this for my writing. I hope you’ll be able to find and capture that bit of life that we can all relate to and enjoy as well I have a tiny criticism which arises out of my personal preference as I would rather not have upper case words in the middle of sentences in children’s books. That said, in Mini Rabbit Come Home, they are used for emphasis, so I can see the opportunities for discussing writing technique with emergent writers was well as encouraging young readers, and the upper case words certainly add drama to the story when it is read aloud. Mini Rabbit Must Help and Mini Rabbit Come Home were published in 2020 and 2021 respectively and complete this trilogy of witty adventures.

But wait… rewind. Where does this story begin? In the cosy kitchen of the Rabbit family treehouse, Mini Rabbit is baking with her mother. On discovering an empty berry jar and faced with the prospect of no cake, Mini Rabbit sets out to find some berries, heedless of Mother Rabbit’s advice. What follows is an epic journey during which the single-minded, cake-loving Rabbit traverses land and sea, mountains and ravines until reaching the mouth of a very dark cave. Young children will enjoy spying the eyes along the way. Older children will notice the signposts that Mini Rabbit misses in her determination to keep moving forward. You could copy the illustrator’s style, repeat the words exactly, or you could make it your own by changing the pictures and words. John also uses a wonderful narrator voice to help guide us readers along the way, gently confirming what we are seeing. The way the artwork transitions on each spread and change in scenery to the next is as interesting to study as it is to search for the hidden berries. Hello everyone! This month I’m looking forward to sharing MINI RABBIT NOT LOST, by John Bond, and the wonderful journey that we’re taken on. Today I want to talk about how John Bond is able to take capture childlike enthusiasm and the amazing adventures it can take us on.You could find things that look like berries, draw and cut out some berry shapes, or scrunch up some bits of paper. Then ask someone to hide them for you to find. I really like the art work in this book. It is colourful, humorous and uses a really pleasing range of pastel colours. I like the occasional use of alternative colours too; a variety of purples for trees in a wood and blues for trees in the snow. I also like the variety of layouts. Simply looking at the cover, we know NOT LOST (I can only hope the Mini Rabbit part will make this a series) is going to be lost despite what the title says. Chalk up another great use of the image telling us something obvious that the title is deliberately leading us astray on.