Many families with young children are often contemplating whether or not add a pet to their household. One of the biggest concerns when making the decision is if the children are old enough and will understand how important it is to care for another living creature.
Bunnies Are a Lot Like You and Me sets out to help children understand more about animals, their needs and their similarity to humans. Christina Graham, a first-time author, has a love for animals and a strong belief in children’s education. This book combines her two passions, aiming to provide educational material while the child enjoys the story and illustrations.
Bunnies Are a Lot Like You and Me begins by stepping through all the body parts of a bunny, from “two ears that are silky soft” to “many toes but only one nose,” explaining to the young reader how a bunny is much like themselves. The story transitions to what a bunny needs, such as food, water, and most importantly, love and attention.
Each page only has a few sentences at most, making it perfect for the preschool age range (though it could definitely be read to younger children). Soft and colorful illustrations of bunnies accompany each page of text, though the illustrations seem quite similar to each other with little variation in details.
I read this book to both my children, ages 5 and 2. My older child was interested in learning about bunnies and seemed to grasp an understanding of pet care. My 2-year-old loved the pictures, and it was able to keep her attention with the short narrative. The content was straight-forward and easy to understand for their age range, though I think the illustrations could have been better used to make the connection between humans and animals. I find that my children thrive in reading comprehension when they can point and connect the text and illustrations.
Overall, I enjoyed the story, and love that it teaches children to respect animals and be aware they are living things with many similar characteristics to their own bodies and minds. If you are considering adding a pet to your home, especially a bunny, this would be a great book to read with your young children. However, any animal-loving child would enjoy this book and take away valuable lessons.
Bunnies Are a Lot Like You and Me
By Christina Graham
$8.99
Available at BookBaby, Amazon and Barnes and Noble
For more information, visit www.savoix.com
Easy to Read: 4
Quality of Illustrations: 3
Appealed to both boys and girls: 5
Kept my child(ren)’s interest: 4
Overall rating: 4
Ratings on a scale of 1-5 with 5 being highest.
Meet the Reviewer!
Christy Petrak is a systems engineer currently taking a leave of absence to raise her two children, Thomas (5) and Eliza (2). She enjoys spending time with her family, swimming and baking/decorating cupcakes.
