Bunny Dreams

PreS-K—McCarty's velvety and diffuse pencil strokes always infuse something of the surreal in his drowsy little creatures. Here the effect is as charming as it is lulling. Twenty-five little bunnies—plus one inexplicable chicken—greet readers on the endpapers, one for each letter of the alphabet. The letters are shown several times throughout the story, but McCarty offers much more than a simple concept book. "What do bunnies know?" asks the narrator. They know to eat their vegetables, to run from the farmer's dog, and to find a hiding place "safe to sleep and dream," but they do not know their names. The adorably lumpy but somewhat realistic bunnies—plus that oddball chicken—fall asleep while the text asks readers to imagine "Where…bunnies go when they dream." It is here that McCarty's dozing lagomorphs sprout wings to take to the air with bees and butterflies, becoming increasingly anthropomorphized. In their dreams, bunnies know their names, their A-B-Cs, and their 1-2-3s. Fanciful dream bunnies float in midair, surrounded by school supplies, toys, and lined paper with their "B" names written clearly (Brenda, Bobby, Brian, Bridget, etc.). One buck-toothed bun protests ("I am a bunny, and my name is not Bobby!"), and the sleepers awaken to a moonlit night, though traces of their unconscious wanderings are present—the moon looks like a giant bunny and one of the little rabbits still wears her dreamworld getup. The warm palette of yellow ochre, muted lavender, and mossy green, surrounded by clean white space, allows young readers to focus on the details—the serene expressions on the faces of the animals; the soothing, if bizarre, image of them flying with wings adorned with letters of the alphabet; the assortment of playthings and objects hovering around them. Readers who demand logic from their tales will find this a head-scratcher (what's the deal with that chicken?), but those who embrace the magical unreality of that land between awake and asleep will surrender to this gentle Jungian adventure.