The Easter Egg (review)

"Each year, the bunny who decorated the winning egg got to help the Easter Rabbit hide the eggs on Easter morning," and Hoppi the rabbit wants to be that bunny assistant. Unfortunately, he's bereft of decorative ideas, and observing other artistic rabbits merely daunts him. Then an unhatched robin's egg falls from a nest high above, and Hoppi steps in, Horton-like, to keep the fallen egg warm as the mother robin sits on the remaining eggs in her nest. When the Easter Bunny arrives for the judging of the eggs, he awards the prize to Hoppi's blue egg, now cracked after its well-tended inhabitant's departure. Brett's story offers substance to the somewhat slim mythology on the world of the Easter Bunny, and little listeners will likely rally around the details of the rabbit kingdom. The book's trajectory is somewhat impaired, however, by its wavering objective: while Hoppi clearly states that his intent is to create something all his own, his final victory, while certainly indicative of his valor, is not at all related to personal creativity. Adults will also need to direct young audiences to the visuals to get the full story, as the little robin's hatching (into a biologically implausible fully fledged bird) is only depicted in illustrative vignettes, not in the text. Brett's signature framing style and intricate compositions incorporate woodsy spring flowers and branches of pussy willows; observant readers will note that the pussy willows grow over the course of the story, ultimately (and inexplicably) yielding furry white bunny rabbits where the soft white buds would be. Despite the muddiness of the message, there are lots of springtime themes to explore here, and the generous helpings of softly furry bunnies will certainly appeal to fans of the small and fuzzy.