What Goes Around....: Rabbit's Gift by George Shannon

Retelling a folktale variously credited to China, the Middle East, Japan, France, and Germany, George Drinnon's just published Rabbit's Gift narrates the gentle story of the gift which keeps on giving.

With deep snow coming, Rabbit hurriedly forages for winter food in a frozen farm field and unearths not one, but two fine fat turnips. Altruistically, Rabbit chooses not to cache but to share his bounty, leaving one turnip at the door of his friend Donkey. Donkey in turn returns from his search with a potato and elects to pass the turnip on to friend Goat. When Goat gets lucky and comes home with a whole cabbage to himself, he passes the turnip down the line to Deer's door.

"How kind," thinks Deer, "Someone's left me a gift. But there's no need to keep more than I can eat. With snow this deep, Rabbit couldn't have found much food." Deer highsteps his way through the snow to Rabbit's house, where he tenderly returns the gift to its originator's door.

"I don't know who to thank," says Rabbit when he finds the food the next morning, "but I know just who to share it with! The final page shows all the friends enjoying a tasty tidbit of turnip together.

Laura Dronzek's elemental thick black line and watercolor drawings have a folkloric primitive feel perfect for this simple tale, which like the turnip, has been passed along from place to place with love.