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Hare's Choice
Moved by the sight of a dead hare on the side of the road, Harry and Sarah take the creature to school to give it a proper burial. Reprint.
96 pages, Hardcover
First published March 1, 1990
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15 people want to read
About the author
Dennis Hamley
106 books12 followersDennis Hamley was born in Kent in 1935 and lived in southern England throughout the war. After attending Cambridge University and completing a PHD at Leicester, Dennis went on to teach English and work in Education as a tutor and advisor.
He began writing in the 1970s and quickly showed his versatility. From the supernatural, to football to wartime novels, Dennis’s beautifully simple prose transports the reader effortlessly to the world of his novels. Many of Dennis’s tales center on uncovering the truth and revealing hidden stories. He uses period details and sensitive characterization to bring history and its people to life. He is passionate about providing page-turning reads for a new generation of discriminating readers.
He began writing in the 1970s and quickly showed his versatility. From the supernatural, to football to wartime novels, Dennis’s beautifully simple prose transports the reader effortlessly to the world of his novels. Many of Dennis’s tales center on uncovering the truth and revealing hidden stories. He uses period details and sensitive characterization to bring history and its people to life. He is passionate about providing page-turning reads for a new generation of discriminating readers.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
November 9, 2009
With this book I continued my emergent tradition of following emotionally turbulent reads with nice books about bunnies. Hare's Choice was beautiful and simply written. It was also a reread for me -- but a fifteen-year-old one. This was my favorite book when I was ten, and in the interim I'd completely forgotten it. This forgetfulness is, considering the contents of the story, rather tragic.
A hare is run over by a car, and her body is found the next morning by two young students who bring her to school. The teachers encourage the class to write a story about her. The story (which I think may have been personally written by Hayao Miyazaki) becomes a book, and as a result the spirit of the dead hare is given a choice between two afterlives...
The idea that legend is a powerful preservative is not new, but that terminal question of the novel is rather original; it's not the same as the usual "will you embrace your destiny" question that Neil Gaiman asks at the end of his, for example. It's more complicated; it's not at all clear what the hare's destiny is supposed to be. Food for thought, I think, and not just for children.
A hare is run over by a car, and her body is found the next morning by two young students who bring her to school. The teachers encourage the class to write a story about her. The story (which I think may have been personally written by Hayao Miyazaki) becomes a book, and as a result the spirit of the dead hare is given a choice between two afterlives...
The idea that legend is a powerful preservative is not new, but that terminal question of the novel is rather original; it's not the same as the usual "will you embrace your destiny" question that Neil Gaiman asks at the end of his, for example. It's more complicated; it's not at all clear what the hare's destiny is supposed to be. Food for thought, I think, and not just for children.
April 10, 2023
As the class of children begin to write their version of the hare’s life, a kind of fable, I wasn’t sure I’d finish the book as it felt a bit like actually reading a story put together by school children however the ending really bought everything together in quite a thought provoking and touching way.
January 14, 2019
Cute story I had read YEARS ago. It still holds up to reading it as an adult. I had forgotten what Hare's choice had been.
October 22, 2019
Fine book
July 31, 2011
I read this as a child - some random library book I picked up because it had an "Animals" sticker on the spine. It must have made an impression on me because I found myself thinking about it and searching for the title. I interlibary-loaned it and and here we are.
There are three main parts to this book. First, a short glimpse of the life of a normal hare, doing things like eating, fighting off a predatory hawk, and racing/showing off for a car that it takes for a gentle beast. This last behavior ends up getting the hare killed, and the sorrowful tourists in the car leave a couple of flowers on the hare's body.
The next part is about two schoolchildren who pass the hare's body on their way to school. They decided to take it with them, which in this small country school is not seen as weird or gross. The teachers indulge the children in their whim to, as a class, collaborate on a story in memory of the hare. The story itself is pretty cool, about the Queen of the Hares and her kind witch friend trying to save their forest from evil human encroachment.
The third part is about the hare in the afterlife being given a choice between going to regular animal heaven, and "fictional" animal heaven where it can hang out with Peter Rabbit and Hazel and all the Wind in the Willows creatures. The hare has no idea about the children or the story, and is frankly baffled by the "thoughts" and "memories" that it suddenly has thanks to being fictionalized.
This was an above-average children's animal book, and it's no wonder it made an impression on me, although I have NO memory of anything that happened after the children decided to write a story about it: the story itself, the heaven thing? I remember wishing that it was a whole book about the hare hopping around in its regular life. I think this would make a great read-aloud for parents with young children, say, ages 6+.
There are three main parts to this book. First, a short glimpse of the life of a normal hare, doing things like eating, fighting off a predatory hawk, and racing/showing off for a car that it takes for a gentle beast. This last behavior ends up getting the hare killed, and the sorrowful tourists in the car leave a couple of flowers on the hare's body.
The next part is about two schoolchildren who pass the hare's body on their way to school. They decided to take it with them, which in this small country school is not seen as weird or gross. The teachers indulge the children in their whim to, as a class, collaborate on a story in memory of the hare. The story itself is pretty cool, about the Queen of the Hares and her kind witch friend trying to save their forest from evil human encroachment.
The third part is about the hare in the afterlife being given a choice between going to regular animal heaven, and "fictional" animal heaven where it can hang out with Peter Rabbit and Hazel and all the Wind in the Willows creatures. The hare has no idea about the children or the story, and is frankly baffled by the "thoughts" and "memories" that it suddenly has thanks to being fictionalized.
This was an above-average children's animal book, and it's no wonder it made an impression on me, although I have NO memory of anything that happened after the children decided to write a story about it: the story itself, the heaven thing? I remember wishing that it was a whole book about the hare hopping around in its regular life. I think this would make a great read-aloud for parents with young children, say, ages 6+.
December 17, 2012
3 2/3 stars! A very intriguing book. The first part of the book describes the life of a hare in the wild. The hare is struck by a car and killed. Its body is discovered by two children. The second part of the book is about how the children and their classmates write stories about the hare.
As an aside, I love the attitude of the teachers at the school who not only accept, but embrace the bringing of the dead hare to their school! And the third part of the book is about the hare and the choice she must make in the afterlife.
The concept of the book is unique. Lots to think about. I don't want to spoil the book by saying too much about the choice that hare must make.
It's interesting, too, how the children come to work together on their stories (story) about the hare. A nice tale of cooperation.
The watercolor illustrations are absolutely beautiful. Simple, expression-filled. I'm sorry the book's cover doesn't show up on Goodreads. While I wouldn't purchase the book, it's well worth checking out from the library and reading. And at less than 100 pages, it's a quick read. It would be a good book to read to or with your child and then discuss.
As an aside, I love the attitude of the teachers at the school who not only accept, but embrace the bringing of the dead hare to their school! And the third part of the book is about the hare and the choice she must make in the afterlife.
The concept of the book is unique. Lots to think about. I don't want to spoil the book by saying too much about the choice that hare must make.
It's interesting, too, how the children come to work together on their stories (story) about the hare. A nice tale of cooperation.
The watercolor illustrations are absolutely beautiful. Simple, expression-filled. I'm sorry the book's cover doesn't show up on Goodreads. While I wouldn't purchase the book, it's well worth checking out from the library and reading. And at less than 100 pages, it's a quick read. It would be a good book to read to or with your child and then discuss.
August 15, 2016
This is a really odd story and I can't think of anything I've read that is quite like it. It's only about 100 pages long, and that's with a lot of illustrations, and most of it is devoted to a kind of heavy-handed message about the power of writing fiction: kids, if you use your imagination and work together, you can create something amazing and timeless from something ordinary! Inspired by a dead hare found by the side of the road, the kids in a class write a legend about the Queen of Hares. I like the idea, but it's a school assignment and it feels like one.
At the same time, when the writer is using her own voice and not speaking through the kids, it's beautiful and haunting. And I loved that the hare becomes a being with a dual identity - a real hare and mythical one at the same time. I've never seen that done anywhere and it was fantastic.
At the same time, when the writer is using her own voice and not speaking through the kids, it's beautiful and haunting. And I loved that the hare becomes a being with a dual identity - a real hare and mythical one at the same time. I've never seen that done anywhere and it was fantastic.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 22, 2011
I read this as a kid and completely forgot about it, until I randomly had a memory of it at work today. This was one of the three most influencial books I read in my younger years along with "The Karate Kid" and the maybe or maybe not underrated "Voyage of the Frog"(I can't really remember what occured in the latter, and have no way of judging any of their mirth 20+ years later). I think my folks let me order this one out of a monthly book order catalog they used to hand out in reading class. As a side note, I have a vague recollection of a Max Headroom READ poster in our school library circa around the same time.
July 2, 2011
My favorite part is the choice of going to regular animal heaven or animal heaven that is populated by animals from stories.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews