Star-Crossed Friends: The Magic Rabbit by Annette LeBlanc Cate

Wonderfully crafted black and white drawings, illuminated with touches of bright yellow, raise this story of a lost and found bunny into a magic-tinged tale that will fully engage young readers.

Ray is a street magician who lives on a picturesque big-city street in a tiny apartment with his assistant, Bunny, whose job is to appear from Ray's tall hat on cue. As the story opens, we see the two business partners at home, Ray filling his wand with small, die-cut yellow stars as Bunny rests in his tophat. Off to work they go, where just at the moment in the performance in which he is supposed to pop out of the hat in a sparkle of stars from Ray's wand, Bunny is frightened away by the CRASH! of a nearby juggler's falling clubs.

As he flees down the street, bike bells, shouting vendors, and car horns frighten the little rabbit into the relative peace of a wooded park, "a wonderful place for a little bunny, but--no Ray!" As dark falls and Bunny's shadow elongates along the park path, he wanders into the street, longing for his snug apartment and warm dinner.

Dollowing the smell of spilled popcorn, Bunny notices a trail of bright yellow stars on the sidewalk. "STARS! Lots of them!" he thinks. Bunny traces the trail of dropped stars until at last they lead him down into the subway, where on the platform he spots a familiar tophat and climbs inside for a rest. As his train pulls in, Ray picks up the hat and places it on his head, only to discover his missing Bunny inside.

"The last train of the night pulled away. Only the magician and his bunny assistant were left on the platform. But the two old friends never minded the walk home together."

The book ends with the two, the city all around them, nearing home under a sky of bright yellow stars.

In The Magic Rabbit Cate's charming illustrations, from a wide-angle view of the quaint cityscape to the up-close, affectionate warmth of their cozy home, evoke the comforting feel of this tale in which fortune (or is it magic?) brings two dear friends together again at last.