bilbopooh's Full Review: Matt Novak - Too Many Bunnies
How many bunnies is too many? That's a question that readers have to puzzle out for themselves in Too May Bunnies, a clever board book by Matt Novak. In this small square book, five bunnies share a hole, and one decides that the quarters are too cramped for him. How much nicer it would be to move into the big empty hole nearby! But this is a close family, and where one bunny goes, others follow. How will these fuzzy fellows manage to agree on how many occupants is ideal?
The concept is very simple. There is a hole in the middle of the book, and on each page, the two-sided head of a bunny is attached, making it look like it is peeking out of the hole. Three of the bunnies are different colors: pink, purple and white. Two are orange; while they have different facial features, I'm surprised that Novak didn't make them different colors as well. I would think he would have wanted as much variation as possible to make the book more colorful. Each bunny - Chubby, Fuzzy, Floppy, Whiskers and Bob - is given a bit of a personality, so they are distinct beyond their physical differences.
The last page of the book does not have the hole in the center, but the rest do, so each time the page is turned, one more bunny ends up on the left side of the page, in the less crowded hole. Except that eventually, that becomes just as crowded as the first hole. By the time all five bunnies are smooshed in there, their initial hole starts to look mighty inviting - but they probably won't stay there long either because wherever the claustrophobic first bunny goes, the others follow, whether he likes it or not.
While the bunnies are the main characters in the story, Novak gives readers secondary characters to enjoy as well, albeit only in the illustrations. Thus, they might go unnoticed at first. On each page, there is a road dividing the holes. To the right of the right hole is a patch of daisies. To the left of the left hole are leaves and rocks. At the end of the road is a tidy little ladybug's house enclosed with a white picket fence. On the first page, we see her happily sweeping the road in front of her house. As the bunnies continues to track mud across the road, she becomes increasingly aggravated as she attempts to reclaim her clean path. Later, a caterpillar shows up on the leaves and a bee visits the daisies, and both are jostled repeatedly, much to their irritation.
This extra element bumps the book up a notch, making Too Many Bunnies a story that, despite its simplicity, bears repeated readings. These rabbits might not make great real-life neighbors, but they sure are fun to visit in this book!
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