Listen Rabbit

by Aileen Fisher

After a year of difficulties in trying to get a wild rabbit for a pet a boy gets a wonderful surprise

Genres: Poetry, Childrens

44 pages, Library Binding

First published June 1, 1964

About the author

Aileen Lucia Fisher was an American writer of more than a hundred children's books, including poetry, picture books in verse, prose about nature and America, biographies, Bible themed books, plays, and articles for magazines and journals. Her poems have been anthologized many times and are frequently used in textbooks. In 1978 she was awarded the second National Council of Teachers of English Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children.

Reviews

[Ms. B · Rating 3 out of 5]

Remember Aileen Fisher? She was quite the poet in the 20th century and won the second NCTE* Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children in 1978. Born in 1906, she published her first collection of poems in 1933. Her last book was published in 2002.
This one is about a boy and a rabbit. Reminiscent of the early to mid 1960s, the illustrations evoke what some may consider a simpler time with the boy outdoors exploring and observing nature on his own.
*National Council of Teachers of English

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely ode to nature, wild things, and the patience and growing wisdom of a young boy. Fun, too, for the right audience. Highly recommended.

Qualifies as a "novel in verse" for the MG independent readers (like some of the picture-books by Byrd Baylor and like Love That Dog.

Also a terrific lap-sit or bedtime book for families.

[Anna G]

Read this to my daght when she was lityle. I loved it so bought it for me. It's in poem and such a sweet book.

[Debi Cates · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ah, brings me back to my childhood...............

No, I don't believe I ever read this book but everything about it reminds me of the kinds of books we read. Not only that, it reminds me of the freedom to discover nature that we had as kids.

The realistic illustrations by Symeon Shimin are lovely and dynamic. There is one picture that stopped me dead in my tracks. It was like it was an actual picture of my brother, Mike, now deceased. Oh. How I wish I could call him up and remind him once again of our pet rabbits, Daisy and JoJo. Turns out that Daisy, my pretty ginger rabbit, was a boy and JoJo, his smokey gray rabbit, was a girl. We always laughed about that. Sigh. But, back to the book...

The story is told as a long poem--the best kind of poem, one that doesn't feel forced, one that is easy to read aloud. The story's ending is sweet as it can be (and with rabbits, always, er, "expected") and should delight any little boy or girl.

This book and one other I picked up today from a Little Free Library will be going in the mail to two other Littles that live up in Idaho, granddaughters of a friend. The youngest Little loves rabbits.