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The Guardians #2

The True Story of E. Astor Bunnyman and the Eggs of Wonder

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In Abilene, Texas, in 1908, Art Atchison Aimesworth, boy inventor and world explorer, enlists the aid of his sister and best friend on a quest to discover the truth about the mysterious Easter Bunny.

Hardcover

First published January 1, 2004

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4351 people want to read

About the author

William Joyce

163 books1,483 followers
William Joyce does a lot of stuff—films, apps, Olympic curling—but children’s books are his true bailiwick (The Numberlys, The Man in the Moon, Nicholas St. North and the Battle of the Nightmare King, Toothiana, and the #1 New York Times bestselling The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, which is also an Academy Award–winning short film, to name a few). He lives with his family in Shreveport, Louisiana.

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5 stars
1,833 (38%)
4 stars
2,016 (41%)
3 stars
855 (17%)
2 stars
96 (1%)
1 star
13 (<1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 578 reviews
Profile Image for Trish.
2,379 reviews3,740 followers
April 15, 2022
This is the second time I'm reading this and I'm once again very smitten with this slightly different look at one of THE figures from almost everybody's childhood: the Easter Bunny! Muhahahahahaha.

Actually, E. Aster Bunnymund isn't a bunny - he's a Pooka, a pretty big warrior rabbit. Thus, he is very skilled in martial arts. However, that is not his only strenght, for he is also very intelligent, logical and strategic! Which is exactly what the newly formed Guardians of Childhood need.
You see, they might have won against Pitch in the first book but now he's simply vanished and that can only mean that he's plotting something very dangerous. He's "gone to ground", quite literally, in fact, and who better to dig tunnels for the Guardians than E. Aster?
But the Guardians gain more than just a tunneling master for E. Aster has some of the quirkiest and yet most awesome weapons!

Seriously, I think I might like this even more than the first despite that being about Santa's origin! Not only were the characters funny and the adventure thrilling, we got to see eggs fighting! COme on, nothing gets better than that, surely?! ;D

Here are some examples of the art in this volume (brilliant as always):





This shines a whole new light on an otherwise not very interesting fabled character, which is why I'm upgrading my rating even.




Original review:

I must admit that I had the firm picture of the movie's Bunnymund in mind so I was very much astonished about the Pooka from the book. However, it is quite cool and funny too. As in the previous books, it was again a pleasure to have those wonderful and lovely drawings that made the book even more special. <3
Profile Image for Calista.
5,430 reviews31.3k followers
August 23, 2019
I enjoyed this story better than the 1st book in the series. Our characters are back for more adventures and saving the world here.

Pitch is about to destroy the world, so this must me a fantasy story. The device to end the world is going down to the Earth's core, so it's a bit different.

The Easter Bunny is a Pooka which sounds funny. He is a guardian and he's like 7 feet tall and very proud. He loves chocolate and can't eat it. I was listening to this in the car and I took the kids to a movie one afternoon and I let them listen to it. The narrator had an accent and they thought everything they said was so funny. Everything Pooka was said, they cracked up. They didn't know the whole story. Anyway.

I am a William Joyce fan. I felt this was better than the first book in the series, but there still seems to be something missing. Is it too serious, or not serious enough? I'm not sure. Something is just not hitting and yet, I did enjoy this story. It was fun to see the world of the Easter Bunny and it has to be Easter Island, of course.

I think this is a great series for kids and anyone who enjoys fairytale retellings. William has a boundless imagination and he puts it to good use. I do want to go on with this series.
Profile Image for Bradley.
Author 9 books4,856 followers
February 4, 2023
Reading this for the first time with my girl.

We both fell in love with this perhaps a bit more than the first book with Nicholas St. North.

Why?

Well, for me it was the SF elements that bring the Easter Bunny into the tale against the Nightmare King. For my daughter, it was the special powers of the eggs and especially the chocolate. (And the chocolate's power) HULK BUNNY!

Either way, we both had a great time and there's no denying it. These books to top quality.
Profile Image for Andrew.
2,539 reviews
December 1, 2018
So I started again reading the Guardians series and I must admit I forgot how much fun they are. When you are day is hectic and full of legal and technical issues there is something about escaping in to a book - and thanks to this book (okay I know its aimed at an audience much younger than I, least that is what I am told) its certainly made to go a long way away.

But seriously this book - the second in the series is far more entertaining that you would think. The art work is sublime and really adds an extra depth to the story (something that I think was lost in the animated film).

Also you get to see a lot more of the characters and their development something that again was lost in the film. I appreciate that the film has a limited time and budget to set up and then conclude the story and yes print has an almost infinite reach over those limits but still there was clearly a lot more given to the books.

And then there is the storyline - yes there can be a few too many puns (then again think of who it was written for) and yes the action can be a little linear but still its a fun read especially when you are reading it around other books like I have been doing.

So yes this is a fun distraction in a hectic work - but its worth taking a closer look at it as there are also some amazing parts to it as well. Now I am no expert but I feel this is far too often over looked.
Profile Image for Connor.
709 reviews1,685 followers
February 16, 2016
[3.5 Stars] I found the beginning of this book to be a bit more tedious than the first and what I would have liked. Really enjoyed the ending, but overall, it wasn't as good for me as the first in the series. I still think young children would love this series and it would be a perfect one to read to the young children in your life.
Profile Image for Ylenia.
1,088 reviews415 followers
April 12, 2016
*2.5 stars*

★ 2016 AtY Reading Challenge ★: A book that you've seen the movie of but haven't read.

I liked the first one more but in this one I discovered Bunnymund. He's awesome!
Profile Image for Miranda Reads (back from hiatus) .
1,702 reviews165k followers
December 9, 2020
description

I used the excess dirt to make a few more continents. Australia is my best work, I think...
North - along with a few friends - managed to drive the Nightmare King back to the shadows and all is peaceful on the battlefront...

But good things cannot last. The Nightmare King is plotting something far more devious than North could ever imagine - or handle.

He will have to recruit E. Aster Bunnymund - a Pooka, warrior and chocolate aficionado - in order to defeat the evil threatening their land.

But there is one problem. ..Bunnymund isn't interested!

It's going to take the whole gang's entire creativity - and a little help from Nightlight (a boy who sounds suspiciously like Jack Frost) - to throw these shadows back into the caves.
Nightlight, who never slept and never dreamed, would keep nightmares, both imagined and real, away.
This series is so much fun! It's very different from the movie but enjoyable nonetheless I am enjoying my time.

As a warning - everything happens VERY quick. As in, one minute we're doing one thing and BOOM the magic's lore jumps ahead three dimensions - but it's not overwhelming (so far).

One thing's for certain - this series keeps me on my toes!

The addition of Bunnymund provided an interesting dynamic (though, I confess, I prefer the movie version).

And I quite like Nightlight - I love characters who have a big impact despite being reserved and quiet.

I think the giant goose was a bit...well..much...but we'll see how that changes things over time.

YouTube | Blog | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Snapchat @miranda_reads
Profile Image for Amanda.
840 reviews327 followers
March 30, 2017
2 stars for the story, but an extra star for the illustrations. I vaguely remember really enjoying the first book in this series, and I love the picture book partner series by Joyce. I think I was expecting this to be more about Easter and Joyce's Easter Bunny mythology. This actually was a true sequel to Nicholas St. North and the ongoing battle with Pitch. A lot of time was spent in the first half of the book with cute stories that didn't further the plot and just added whimsy. And E. Aster Bunnymund didn't really appear until the second half of this book. I thought it was ill-paced and that the title was misleading. I still have the third in the series to read. Hopefully it will impress me more.
Profile Image for Tamara York.
1,481 reviews28 followers
April 22, 2019
A fantastic family read aloud. I think that we might have liked this more than the first in the series. Joyce is a master storyteller. He builds a world right out of a kid’s imagination and uses absolutely beautiful language, not to mention packing in vocabulary like a champ. He is a genius. This is a classic tale of light verses dark, good verses evil with Warrior Eggs, wizards, moon beams, a Pooka, and a smattering of Yetis thrown in. Highly recommend as a read aloud for age 7 and up.
Profile Image for Sherry.
1,019 reviews106 followers
December 8, 2023
Utterly charming and everything I was looking for with the first book but didn’t find. I enjoy this take on Santa and the Easter bunny. Good stuff! Onto the next book in the series.
Profile Image for Barbara Storey.
Author 17 books53 followers
June 30, 2012
This is the second book in the "Guardians" series - the next ones are due out this fall, just before the movie version of the series comes out. I DO like these books - they were written in response to a question from the author's child. "Do all the fairy tale characters know each other?" So William Joyce set out to, in effect, create a mythology where they DO all know each other.

Very inventive, very whimsical, and I love Joyce's illustrations. They are a good fit for a fairytale. But I still feel like there is something missing in these books, some depth that is lacking. There's no primal "a-ha" or "yes" of recognition to these characters, no real sense of universal or collective identification with the story because it IS new, and totally from Joyce's imagination. Maybe in time, the story will acquire that depth. Maybe I'm just too old to be able to accept his world as a given. ;)

I do still like the books - and the character of Bunnymund - a lot. (There are still grammatical errors that make me cringe, though.) And I do look forward to the books on the other two fairytale heros: Toothiana, Queen of the Tooth Fairy Armies, and the Sandman (who does not speak). I love the theme of protecting children's' dreams, saving them from nightmares (Pitch, the Nightmare King), and the innocence of believing in magic. Maybe I'm not too old yet. :)
Profile Image for alexander shay.
Author 1 book19 followers
December 19, 2018
It's been long enough since reading the first book that I don't really remember what happened. Thankfully there are some refreshers about it in this book and that helped. While North of the books reminds me decently of North of the movies, Bunnymund is very changed. Maybe because I watched the movie first, but I enjoyed movie Bunnymund much better.

To start with, despite this book being Bunnymund's, he doesn't show up until slightly after halfway through the book. He's obsessed with chocolate and eggs (fair, he is the Easter Bunny) and hates humans. He's still a fierce warrior who has an egg army, and it's mentioned that he created Australia (I wonder if that's the origin of movie Bunnymund's ethnicity). But he's so standoff-ish and closed off that I never really enjoyed him as a character like I did North. I got the feeling from the first book that each would center around the title character and show us their journey, but it appears we get their adventures through North's eyes instead.
Profile Image for Jean-Marie.
974 reviews51 followers
March 26, 2012
My 8-year-old and I loved, loved, loved this read aloud. We cannot wait until the release of the third book in the Guardians of Childhood series: "Toothiana, Queen of the Tooth Fairy Armies" as well as the release of Dreamworks Animation's "The Rise of the Guardians" movie later this year. We loved reading about the secret lives and early beginnings of our favorite childhood characters. These books and their illustrations are so much fun and wildly imaginative. Standing ovation for William Joyce and his amazing creativity!

The chapter book series is also a wonderful complement to the picture book "The Man in the Moon." A second picture book in the The Guardians of Childhood picture book series, "The Sandman: The Story of Sanderson ManSnoozy" is also due to release later this year.
Profile Image for Alex.
851 reviews1 follower
March 25, 2019
I don't know why, but E Aster Bunnymund was my favorite character in the entire book.
Okay, wait, I do know why. Haha! He was just the perfect amount of strange, eccentric, and weird... oh, and awkward! I loved how awkward he was! I also found his banter with North quite hilarious :)
#dontmesswithachocolateeatingpooka
Profile Image for Carina.
296 reviews5 followers
September 30, 2019
Not enough bunny!
But seriously now, this book is a direct continuation of book 1 (Nicholas St. North) and although it is supposed to be the story of E. Aster Bunnymund, he doesn't appear for the first 40% of the book, at all. We simply continue our journey with Nicholas, Ombric, Katherine and Nightlight as they try and find a way to defeat Pitch once and for all and Bunnymund becomes part of their group.
I expected something different (a bit more of a stand-alone story), but I still love the illustrations and the fantastical world depicted. Also, I am wildly in love with this crazy, bad-ass Bunnymund:

"Not like chocolate? Not like”—he gasped—“eggs? Now, won’t you please stop talking—you humans use so many, many words. And so few of them are about eggs. It’s exhausting.”

Hundreds of living eggs of various sizes, designs, and uniforms strode about on their toothpick-thin legs, engaged in a wide array of duties. Mixing chocolate. Making candy eggs. Decorating eggs. Painting eggs. Polishing eggs. Packaging eggs. It was all very, very egg-centric.
Profile Image for Sisis  Cálix.
263 reviews3 followers
September 6, 2025
Muy bonita historia, me gustó mucho la relación de Nicolás y Bunny, se parece a la de Bunny con Jack en la película. Siento que la historia está más entretenida pero me quedaron debiendo ilustraciones y es que Joyce ilustra tran Bonito que quería ver más de su mundo.
Profile Image for Ana.
259 reviews1 follower
November 26, 2022
Una hermosa historia, adorable y llena de imaginación muy recomendable para todas las edades
Profile Image for Annie Lilley.
126 reviews4 followers
January 31, 2019
I went into this book pretty blind, or at least, as much as you can for having watched the movie and read the book that came before it! So I had no idea what to expect!
Some things still remain the same, the beautiful writing, the childlike wonder to the story, the characters that you've come to love. All those things that made the first book so special are here as well! The story is a little slower to start, but only marginally in my opinion.

Getting to know Pitch's story a bit more wasn't something I expected (though I really don't know why, I had always pictured him as a Villain with a capital 'V'. Always had been evil, always would be.) so the peak into his back story was an unexpected... pleasure isn't the right word. Bonus? Benefit of this story. It made me a lot more sympathetic to his character, something I did not expect when I opened the book. He's still the villain and clearly in the wrong, but knowing more about his history makes things different.

E. Aester Bunnymund also falls into the category of unexpected! It came out the same year as the movie, but in February, a full 9 months before the film came out, so I was surprised at just how different the character in the movie was from the book. I suppose I really shouldn't be, as our current version of the character who will be Santa is only slightly distanced from his ne're-do-well past, still very young, and still very skinny! But even in North's case, it doesn't take too much squinting to see his future self, but Bunnymund baffles me. As much as I really enjoyed his introduction and even the character arc he has in this book, he still seems so very different from who he will be. I'm hoping that we'll get to see more of his future self as the books continue!

Overall, I loved the book and am looking very forward to reading the third!


1 Star - Hated It
2 Stars - Didn't Enjoy It
3 Stars - It Was Okay
4 Stars - Really Enjoyed It
5 Stars - Loved It
Profile Image for Ryofire.
743 reviews2 followers
September 18, 2023
This was not an improvement on book 1, which unfortunately made me like it even less. To caveat: this is a chapterbook series principally targeted at very young children, so don't expect too much if you're a "Rise of the Guardians" fan over the age of nine. If you'd like some decent film-related "Rise of the Guardians" backstory, go read Rufftoon's webcomics (just google Rufftoon, go to her deviantart gallery and look at her "Rise of the Guardians" folder). They're really wonderful. These books are unenjoyable, repetitive, overall badly written, and have incredibly bad pay-off for just about every plot and character.

Bunnymund in the book is at once a darker and far more neutral character than in the film. He's far wiser (perhaps THE wisest character in the universe) and powerful and is even more obsessed with eggs than the film version is. I can't exactly say he's as enjoyable as the one in the film, either.

The series continues with its playful rewrites of history and 'science'. The Earth was apparently egg-shaped at one point and eggs are, for some reason, the most perfect shape in existence. There's no explanation for why a rabbit-like creature would obsess over eggs (ignoring the rather interesting actual history behind the connection between rabbits, eggs, and Easter) other than that he simply does. He's also not really a rabbit. He's some sort of 'alien' or ancestor creature that's been on Earth since long before anything else. If that's fascinating to you, then this may be the book for you. It wasn't for me.

If you're still waiting for Jack Frost to show up at some point, you'll have to wait a bit longer. The next book is Tooth's, though, and we get to learn more about Pitch in book 4 so don't give up here if you've gotten this far! Just read through the rather silly novel and keep going.
Profile Image for Chelsea.
2,082 reviews62 followers
April 12, 2022
3.5 stars. While still fun, definitely not as engaging as the first book. I think this series would be a fun series to read aloud with a family because book 2 brings us even more colorful and unique characters. Bunnymund is a Pooka who loves egg shaped things. And he's reluctant to join North and Katherine's quest to the Earth's Core and join the fight against Pitch. We get some tragic backstory as well which makes the Boogey Man just a bit more sympathetic.

Overall still a fun tale but not as thrilling or action packed as it's predecessor.
Profile Image for Crysta.
59 reviews1 follower
February 26, 2019
Another pleasant read for bedtime stories. The pictures are again excellent. Ombric's remembrances are very neat, and so is basically everything about the chocolate- and egg-obsessed Pooka named Bunnymund. Who apparently changed the earth from an egg shape into a more round shape so it wouldn’t hit the sun. As a resident of a non-sun-melted earth, I would like to trumpet my thanks.
Profile Image for Michelle Kobus.
772 reviews65 followers
December 31, 2015
Probably closer to 4*, but I was a bit turned off by the cartoon-y elements (in a book), like Bunnymund turning his rabbit ears into a helicopter; it's a fun series I'm going to continue, but probably not one I'd want to re-read, so 3* it is.
Profile Image for Elevetha .
1,931 reviews196 followers
June 12, 2013
A nice addition to The Guardians series.

Among others things, there is a giant Phooka bunny who goes berserk when he eats chocolate...what's not to like?
Profile Image for Collin.
1,119 reviews45 followers
May 21, 2017
First read: October 17, 2013
Second read: January 23, 2017
Profile Image for Sara.
285 reviews16 followers
June 3, 2015
Read aloud to younger sister. We both extremely enjoyed it!
Profile Image for Julianne S .
137 reviews1 follower
January 13, 2024
I really wouldn’t know how to explain these books to those who haven’t read them. They’re very silly, but can become unexpectedly serious and profound. The story is unfolding along lines of childlike logic, with plenty that happens through nothing but magic and belief, but the writing doesn’t talk down to children. The characters and their friendships, rivalries, passions, and humor are simple, but extremely appealing and fun. And the illustrations and titles continue to be fantastic. So I’m viewing and rating them for what they are: above-average literature for kids just getting into chapter books (or for adults who need magic, lightheartedness, zero-effort reading, and ancient rabbit-like alien chocolatiers who are obsessed with eggs in their lives).

“If she thought hard enough, the drawings and the words she wrote could come to life on the page. The ink and paper she used were ordinary, but her mind, her imagination, was what gave the words and pictures their great power: the power to connect her to anyone who read her stories.”

“Ombric, North, and Katherine would move Heaven and Earth to come to their rescue; she knew that as surely as she knew that the sky was blue, the grass was green, and fireflies cheated at games of tag.”

“‘I’ve tried over and over to help the world of humans. I’ve invented most of your trees, flowers, grass. Spring. Jokes. Summer vacations. Recess. Chocolate. But none of it seems to have changed anything. Humans still behave badly and never seem to cherish the light.’”
Profile Image for Joab .
158 reviews1 follower
November 10, 2025
¡Qué diferencia! Este libro fue más rápido de leer que el anterior. Definitivamente el conejo se volvió mi nuevo personaje favorito de esta historia. Ansío continuar ya con la historia para saber qué clase de ser es el hada de los dientes y su historia. Además de que tipo de relevancia va a tener con estos personajes y cómo funcionará el nuevo objeto o cual será, supongo que un diente pero quisiera saber como se revelará.

SPOILERS
Algo que no me gustó mucho fue que había pasado casi la mitad del libro y aún no se mencionaba nada del conejo. Siento que tuvo muy poquito protagonismo y se menciona más o se le da más relevancia a North y Katherine, entiendo que con ellos se haya empezado la historia pero es una serie de libros larga, espero que se le dé más relevancia conforme pase la historia por que el conejo se me hizo un personaje muy divertido y curioso. Además, me llamó mucho la atención que el conejo lleva desde hace mucho tiempo existiendo, entiendo que es un Pooka pero, esos que son o que.
Profile Image for Artrix.
121 reviews15 followers
March 21, 2023
Me ha pasado igual que el anterior, se me ha hecho demasiado corto y no ves su origen como tal. Pero que queréis que os diga, me ha encantado y más al saber que aparecen todos los personajes del libro anterior y funcionando como una secuela casi directa.

Es verdad que Bunny no tiene demasiadas apariciones siendo que este es su libro y se ve más como un secundario que principal, pero sus apariciones y sobretodo en esa batalla final y la isla molan bastante.

No esperéis un señor de los anillos aquí, ya que estas historias son como cuentos largos dirigidas a un público infantil, pero hasta yo que soy un adulto me ha flipado y ojalá esto se vea reflejado algún día en una franquicia de animación.

No es un libro perfecto pero es que me da igual, quiero saber más de todo esto jajajaja
Displaying 1 - 30 of 578 reviews

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