Hide & Peek: What Noise Does A Rabbit Make? by Carrie Weston

BUNNY, BUNNY, DON'T YOU PEEK.

BUNNY, BUNNY,  HIDE AND SEEK!

Little gray Bunny is thrilled to play a new game with his friends, but he's not really up on exactly how to be IT.

While he counts, the other animals dash off and hide--not all that well, actually.

But still Bunny is better at the running part than at the seeking part.  Even with the dubious help of a little mole, he can't seem to spot anybody--not even turtle, who has merely pulled his head and legs under his shell and sits there right before his eyes. Hare is visible through the tall grass.  Skunk is clearly smell-able, but Bunny doesn't follow up on the olfactory clue. Even with the little Mole hinting broadly where he should look, Bunny misses Owl, Bear, and Squirrel, hiding almost in plain sight.

Bunny is bummed. He can't find anybody! He hops deeper into the woods, and it's beginning to look like his friends are going to have to find him!

But it seems Bunny has already found good friends who won't let him worry alone for too long, in Carrie Weston's story of a bunny lost and found, Peek-a-Boo Bunny (HarperCollins, 2014).  While her sweet  story of  a novice hide-and-seeker is simple, her illustrations offer much for the reader to search out.  Done up artfully in mixed media (a collage of paint and plaster overlaid with digitally-drawn vines, grasses, and flowers that frame each page), each double-page spread provides the active reader a chance to spy out the animals that Bunny can't quite spot.  As Kirkus Reviews puts it, "Preschoolers who are just beginning to understand the game of hide-and-seek will find this irresistible." A fine find for Easter baskets or spring storytime treats.