Rabbit Blue

Steve Pitt is a Toronto-based freelance writer and an award-winning journalist. He has written many young adult and children's books, including Day of the Flying Fox: The True Story of World War II Pilot Charley Fox.

Rabbit Blue is a bat-winged lagomorph who rides a flying pig, swings
from the stars, and drives elephants through the jungle. Other than
that, there is not much to tell because this story is really carried by
its illustrations, not by the nonsense verse. A typical section of rhyme
is: “Rabbit Blue loves to swim. / There he is. Look at him!”

For the swim line, we see Rabbit Blue diving like a dolphin beside a
boat. For the “There he is. Look at him!” Rabbit Blue is suddenly
crashing into an acrobat in a circus ring. There is no explanation for
this. The connecting threads are carried in the illustrations, where a
simple pattern is repeated from drawing to drawing, but with a new twist
each time. In this way, a circus ring becomes an old man’s necktie,
and then an elephant jockey’s bridle, and then a desert tent.

In some respects, this book seems aimed more at the adult reading to a
child than at the child being read to. Marie-Louise Gay’s artwork is
engrossing in its subtlety. Sometimes the subtlety almost buries Rabbit
Blue, flying pig, and all. Recommended with reservations.