cover image To Rabbittown

To Rabbittown

April Halprin Wayland. Scholastic, $12.95 (32pp) ISBN 978-0-590-40852-3

In this dreamy picture-book fantasy, a girl asks her pet rabbit, ``Where do the rolling hills go?'' and the white rabbit gives her directions ``to the edge of it all / to Rabbittown.'' She journeys to the home of the rabbits, where she is invited to stay and gradually turns into a rabbit herself: ``I grew ears / I heard butterflies fly / I heard the movement of worms in the soil / I heard clouds coming.'' She lives happily in Rabbittown until a baby rabbit snuggles close and asks, ``Where do the rolling hills go?'' and the girl remembers her family and wants ``to grow legs again / to grow arms again / to hold my pet bunny again / who holds memories / of Rabbittown.'' Wayland's fuzzy narrative poem lacks craft, and Spowert's scumbled illustrations, though well designed, seem repetitious. Ages 7-10. (Mar.)