(Cross-posted at the Spring Reading Challenge)The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes by Du Bose Heyward, Illustrated by Marjorie Flack is one of my all-time favorite picture books. Published in 1939, it has a wonderfully strong female character in the girl bunny who stands up to the big white bunnies and the Jack Rabbits with long legs who can run so fast, to declare that one day she will be an Easter bunny. She goes on to have 21 babies which would appear to seal her fate as an ordinary bunny, but babies become children, and she wisely teaches all of them how to work together to take care of the household.
When one of the old Easter bunnies retires, the country bunny becomes an Easter bunny. She is sent to deliver an Easter egg to an ill child who lives high up on a mountain, a dangerous journey.
I love love love this book. I used to check it out from my school library repeatedly when I was little. As an adult I love the feminist bent to the story, but as a child I think I loved the sweet illustrations most of all. We are lucky to be living in a kind of golden age of children's literature right now. There is an amazing array of picture books to choose from, each one more beautifully or cleverly illustrated than the one previous. But sometimes my eyes get tired of the super-saturated colors or the computer-generated sameness of contemporary book illustration. I frequently find myself turning back to my old favorites.
Interested in sampling older children's books? A great place to start is with Caldecott medal winners, and go from there. I guarantee you will find a treasure trove.
