Reviewed by Wendy Lipke
The creator of this book is Hana Kinoshita Thomson, a Japanese-American-Australian illustrator, designer and author. As well as creating her own hard covered rabbity books she is an in-house book designer at Allen & Unwin.
This square children’s hard-covered picture book is dedicated to her parents and anyone who loves rabbits. This book allows the illustrations to tell the story and create conversations with young readers.
There is text on the pages, but it is used mainly as prompts for the reader to discover content for themselves e.g. on the page which says ‘First things first’, the illustrations show the rabbit eating his breakfast of bread and carrot jam then later cleaning his teeth.
Once outside the house the rabbit digs up a few carrots, one to eat straight away, then she sets out with her little cart to get ingredients for baking, which she loves to do. She is baking a cake to share with her friends outside in the back yard.
The double page illustration which shows her getting ready to cook has illustrations of ingredients and utensils which young children could identify or name. On the inside of the back cover is the recipe for Bun’s Carrot Cake.
This is a bright interesting story which can also act as a learning tool.
Bun
(2026)
by Hana Kinoshita Thomson
Allen & Unwin
ISBN:9 781761 182396
$19.99; 28pp