The Rabbits [Illustrated] (Hardcover)

The illustrations are beautiful, entrancing with always some new detail revealed on every examination. They are beautifully sensitive to the culture of the creatuers that narrate teh book. Some are very funny, others make you want to learn to paint again. Ranging from rich oil to pen-and-ink diagramatic style with (yet keeping its consistency) it is a great stimulus for drawing with children (I start by finding the thumb-prints in the landscapes). Just buy it for the pics.

The story is a deep metaphor for the colonialisation of Australia (at least that is this adult's interpretation - I know children as young as 5 who have found their own meanings). The consistent and beautiful world of the narrators gives way to the mad (and bitter-sweet comical) technology of the incoming rabbits.

As an arts-in-education professional I find this book works as a peice of art more than any other I know - you can interrogate it, build meaning, and combine it with your own experience of the world. It does not preach and has an open ending that begs "what if?" questions . . . It is both very simple and very rich at the same time.

I've finally succeeded in giving my first copies away (took 12 months to part with them) - so I'm buying some more at the ridiculously cheap paperback rate!

First the illustrations are stunning, with hidden qualities and detail that still reveal more after 30 readings. They vary from heavy oil-paint style - to almost comic colourful diagrams. They are wonderful representations of natural landscapes, their significances to those living in it, and equally of the cities and technologies that are laid upon it. Buy it for these alone.

The format - a big children's hard-back, with two page spread and one or two lies of text. This has the feel of a book for young children (I know 4 year olds who adore it), which does not entirely do it justice.

The story: it is an account by an native animal of how the rabbits came to their land and changed it. The text has a simplicty and directness that charms. For an adult it is a potent account of the British destruction of the Australia that had existed for generations before they arrived - but it works at the level of the reader.

It does not horrify (because of the honesty and richness of the metaphor) - the rabbits' cities and schemes have a wry eye for humour and detail, but equally the outcome of battles between the two species is plain ("We lost the fights"). The last page brings tears everytime I read it - the simple question "What are we going to do about the rabbits?"

As a piece of art for young people it is rare in its richness, and its honesty about the real world without romanticising and, equally importantly, without preaching.