The Hot Cross Bunny

Having failed to grow a single chocolate egg for the Easter Egg Harvest, Steve, a bright blue bunny, channels his frustration into a recipe of his own. The heat of competition, and his own lack of harvest, have made Steve the crossest rabbit on “the top secret Isle of the Great Easter Bunny.” Feeling “hop-less” but still intent on winning the annual Golden Egg Cup, he plants a concoction of ingredients that produces a giant egg—one that hatches a hungry purple dragon who flies off to the “real world” and eats all the chocolate eggs it can find. Steve and a chicken companion dive into a frenetic quest to remedy the situation, which soon involves chocolate-egg poo and other goofy elements. Chambers’s brightly cartooned scenes feature fantastical landscapes, keeping pace with Bexington’s rhymed telling in this chaotic holiday outing with a Grinch-like arc. Ages 3–5. (Mar.)