That’s My Carrot

PreS-Gr 2–In a tale of a classic neighborly feud, Na introduces two gardening rabbits with differing philosophies on growing carrots. The bespectacled yellow rabbit uses scientific methods while the bow-tied purple rabbit plays music to its plants. When the two discover and dig up a giant carrot straddling their plots of land, they bury their differences and encounter an adorable tunneling creature who has beaten them to the feast. Luckily, this experience teaches them to work together, and they vow to try a new crop—turnips! Na’s latest offering is exquisite all around. His illustrations are clever and fun, simple and clean, yet multifaceted and layered. Each green carrot top is delightfully wriggly and unique, and the texture of the carrot skin is spot-on. The animals are adorably anthropomorphized and have clear personality. The perspective and layout shift from page to page. A spread of wordless panels shows the rabbits watching the giant carrot grow. Vertical spreads, mirroring the endpapers, feature a cross-section of the dug-out underground maze as the creatures look for the hungry culprit. Na uses language carefully, showing more than telling; the majority of the text is short thoughts and statements from either side of the fence.