BumbleBunnies: The Pond

by Graeme Base

A BRAND-NEW SERIES FROM THE CREATOR OF THE INTERNATIONALLY ACCLAIMED PICTURE BOOK, ANIMALIA Wuffle the puppy, Lou the kitten and Billington the duck are playing happily in the garden. But when disaster strikes, who will save the day? From the award-winning bestselling creator of Animalia comes a new series to delight young readers

24 pages, ebook

Published October 1, 2018

About the author

Graeme Rowland Base is a British-Australian author and artist of picture books. He is perhaps best known for his second book, Animalia published in 1986, and third book The Eleventh Hour which was released in 1989.

Reviews

[Lync Lync · Rating 5 out of 5]

A departure from Graeme's more fantastical picture books, being firmly grounded in a Suburban backyard. Mind you this backyard is large enough to hold a rabbit hutch and a pond, which is larger than any backyard I've ever lived with.
Superbly drawn still, and still with the puzzles and intrigue. Loved it as much as any of his works.

[Kate Atkinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading for Year 1 library class

[Bella]

A cutesy book to read aloud to babies and toddlers. I was expecting something darker and more complex given the author. The illustrations are lovely.

[Fatima Seraj Alam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved the illustrations and the plot twist at the end.

[Jade · Rating 5 out of 5]

Re-read

I am a huge fan of Graeme Base's picture books, so of course I bought this as soon as I spotted it. My only reservation was that it was clearly for younger readers, which could potentially make it less interesting for adult readers. However, I shouldn't have doubted: the youngest member of the household was entranced from first seeing the cover and happily listened to the story, and I found it very sweet.

Some points:
* This really is aimed at younger children - if you aren't a young child (or reading to a young child) then you might find this too simplistic;
* my audience loves cute animals and superheroes, so a combination of the two is an instant win;
* my audience was surprised to find out that all the BumbleBunnies are female (the more surprising thing is that a small child thought this was remarkable - so I am glad for this detail);
* there are little hints in the pictures pointing to who the BumbleBunnies are and how they will save the day (it's not a mystery but it's a nice touch) - after finishing the book we flipped back through the pages to look for these clues;
* the BumbleBunnies keep a memento of their adventure - very cute!
* these are small-scale heroes - if you want volcanoes and supervillans oh my then this is not for you.

After we read this, my audience asked if I could find the other books in the series. We definitely will!