Just in time for spring and Easter, I wanted to share our love-to-read and want-to-read books about or featuring bunnies and rabbits! Below, I have rounded up two collections of books featuring the hippity-hoppity furry friends: Classic and Modern bunny books. Let me know if I missed your favorite in the comments!
The Tale of Peter Rabbit: Will loves his giant board book version of this classic, which is shaped like Peter himself! Sweet, hungry and mischievous Peter can’t stay out of Mr. McGregor’s garden – and gets into some trouble!
Guess How Much I Love You: A perfect story to try to express just how much we love our little people. Beautiful watercolors illustrate the depth, height and length of a mother’s love. You don’t have be a Nutbrown Hare to appreciate this book! I love whispering “I love you to the moon- and back” in Will’s ear when we read this.
The Velveteen Rabbit: This perennial favorite has a special place in my heart, as one of our readers at our wedding quoted from this book to demonstrate how love truly does make us all “real!” I personally remember many afternoons watching the video version of this tall tale, and can’t wait to share the story with William as he grows.
I am a Bunny: This was my personal favorite bunny book when I was very young. My parents gave Will his own copy so now he can read about the Nicholas the bunny’s favorite activities every season. I definitely pretended I lived in a hollow tree like Nicholas many times as a child.
The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes: This bunny tale was published in 1937 and is the story of a mother bunny (with 21 little ones!) who wants nothing more than to be the Easter bunny. She faces many who tell her she can’t – because she’s female, because she’s not the right color – but she prevails in the end. This one has quite the message of empowerment, if you consider it!
The Bunny Book: What will we be when we grow up? A sweet baby bunny asks this question and imagines lots of futures in this Richard Scarry title.
The Golden Egg Book: This Little Golden Book has a sweet bunny with a mysterious egg and eventually a sweet duckling.
Home for a Bunny: This wonderful Little Golden title lets little ones follow a small brown bunny’s journey to find a home. The beautiful prose reads with great rhythm, making it a fun book to recite to and with kids. And the illustrations in Little Golden books are always a treasure!
Marshmallow: This amazing classic tells the tale of Oliver the cat who loved his life as the primary animal in the house. But when Marshmallow comes home, the sweet bunny thinks Oliver is his mother – and Oliver can’t help but be the best mama to little Marshmallow as he can be! It’s a really very sweet story, with a great message about love and compassion.
The Runaway Bunny: Another great story for us parents who love our own little bunnies so, so much! The little bunny in this story posits a series of ways that she will run away from her mama, but her mama responds with love about how she’ll find her wherever she tries to go.
Goodnight Moon: Of course, I’d be remiss to not mention the story of the sweet bunny who doesn’t want to go to sleep and insists on saying goodnight to everyone and everything.
The Bunnies are Not in Their Beds: A great read for little bunnies that don’t want to sleep and bigger bunnies who just want them to do so! This is a fun book for kids to memorize and repeat along with the adults who read it to them.
Zomo the Rabbit: Full of vibrant pictures and a hilarious story about a mischievous rabbit who gets what he deserves in the end! Zomo seeks cleverness and is set three challenging tasks to receive it. He tries to use his trickster ways to get what he wants, but in the end, Zomo earns his cleverness the hard way.
Hooray for Hoppy: This book allows children to use and explore their five senses along with Hoppy at the beginning of spring.
Wolfie the Bunny: This little gem was published just last month and seems to be a fun addition to the bunny books collection! A bunny family adopts a brand new baby – but it’s a wolf in bunny clothes! Only one family member seems to understand the danger and tries to warn her parents and siblings. This could be a great book for allowing older siblings with a new baby at home an outlet for expressing all of the discomfort that arrives with a new family member.
Farewell, Floppy: Another new book with fun illustrations and a wonderful story about a young boy who wants to grow up, and thinks abandoning his rabbit in the wild will help his march toward being an adult. It doesn’t go quite as planned – and the changing emotions that the reader experiences along with the boy will leave their lasting impression.
The Easter Bunny’s Assistant: This hilarious modern story is about a sweet skunk who is so excited about the prospect of being the Easter bunny’s helper that it can’t but…let it be shown in a way that only a skunk can!
COMING SOON:
Ninja Bunny: This looks like a fun tale of a bunny who desperately wants to be a ninja – but may have to make some sacrifices to do so!
Wanted: Ralfy Rabbit, Book Burglar: Another book that seems to be a happy story of an illicit rabbit who wants nothing but – books!
William loves bunnies and books about them.
There a few good lists here and here as well.
What’s your favorite book about bunnies? Do you find yourself reading ‘springtime’ books to your little one(s) this time of year?
cantaloupe / 6086 posts
I loved the Easter Egg Artists growing up.
coconut / 8079 posts
I love posts about books!
Looking forward to reading some of these with my little boy.
pomegranate / 3212 posts
What about Knuffle Bunny??
ETA: I loved The Little Bunny Who Wanted Red Wings growing up. It’s very hard to find the original version/artwork now!
kiwi / 558 posts
Such a cute photo and love that blanket!
blogger / apricot / 310 posts
@bhbee: I’ll look for that one- thanks!
@jhd: me too! let me know if you end up liking some.
@knittylady: ooh I haven’t heard of either of those, but I’ll check them out! thank you!
@HTownMom: haha, thank you! my dear friend made him the blanket