i hesitate to say that our last week was crazy, because that is pretty much true every week at our house, but this week we had a few extra crazies…our dad was gone, our baby turned one, our chicken ran away (we’re preferring to say that lulu ran away instead of that she was nabbed by a dog while happily playing in our front yard…which is sadly, probably what actually happened.) so at the end of every crazy day this week, i sat down somewhat frazzled to the bone and almost in tears and read a few chapters of this book to my kids. i bought it at the scholastic book sale. i have wanted it since it was published last year. i adore this author. she is certain to be one of those children’s book authors that goes down in history as a favorite storyteller of many generations. my kids will certainly collect all her books as adults, i hope, remembering reading them aloud together.

anyway, this book about a china rabbit who gets separated from his owner did not disappoint, neither in its magic ability to hold three different little attention spans, nor in its being able to calm my own soul down harried day after harried day. there are 27 short chapters, each one having it own exquistite small illustration, in addition to several full color plate illustrations, each one highly anticipated at our house. mary polly, in particular, spent a long time going back through these sweet drawings after we finished the book. we finished it friday night before dad came back saturday morning…i made it last until then, holding the book hostage during the day despite protests from cole and mary polly who wanted to just go ahead and read the rest on their own. i held on to it because we needed it. we needed that time at the end of each day this week. we needed to be quiet and listen. we needed our hearts to be stretched by a good story. and maybe, my kids needed to hear my voice at the end of the day…just calm and reading, not being mad at anyone or giving orders or barking consequences. just reading.

when we finished this book, i kissed my kids goodnight. then i just sat in my room and cried for a little while. maybe just because i was exhausted from the week, but also for sarah ruth, for bull, for abiline, because kate dicamillo’s characters are so real that they become your friends, or they remind you of your friends or just people in your life. i even thought often of our stupid chicken as we read about edward’s journey, which is why we are preferring to imagine her traveling the world and having adventures. i think that maybe that’s the treasure of a good children’s story, or any good story. hope.