In this book Mr. McGreely plants a vegetable garden. When the sun goes down three hungry bunnies get into his garden and “Muncha! Muncha! Muncha!” He wakes up in the morning, sees his decimated plants, and builds a fence around the garden to keep the bunnies out. The bunnies get in again, and he builds a bigger fence around the smaller fence around the garden. The battle escalates until there are two fences, a trench, and a high brick wall around the garden. This keeps the bunnies out until they sneak into McGreely’s basket as he’s climbing over the wall to collect his veggies. The story is simple but all too familiar to anyone who has planted a garden with high hopes.

The illustrations are scribbly and earth-toned, but it’s the text that stands out. It’s filled with internal rhymes, so it doesn’t sound quite like a poem, but is as fun to read. The sounds of the bunnies breaking into the garden become more involved with each additional hurdle they face so that by the time they’re navigating the trench and two fences we hear:

Tippy-tippy-tippy, Pat!

Dive-paddle, Splash! Splash! Splash!

Dig-scrabble, Scratch! Scratch Scratch!

Spring-hurdle, Dash! Dash! Dash!

Muncha! Muncha! Muncha!

This book has more words per page and a more complex plot than Zadie is accustomed to, but we always make it the whole way through. To my surprise, when she wants to read this one she doesn’t say anything about the bunnies or about munching. Instead, she says “Em-greely.”

“Boo Hoo Bird” is the story of a blue bird who gets bonked on the head while playing catch with a raccoon. He’s hurt and no one seems to be able to make him feel better despite offering hugs, kisses, cookies, or rounds of hide-and-seek. When all of the bird’s friends are crying, upset because they can’t make him feel better, he cheers up and you realize that he’s been milking it the whole time.

Much as I’d like to believe that Zadie’s with me on the awkwardness of the book’s conclusion, I think her aversion to the book has more to do with the fact that the bird’s inability to feel better doesn’t fit any of the story lines she knows. She’s in a big storytelling phase and knows a dozen or so stories about things that she’s experienced, whether she remembers the actual events or not. One of these stories is about her cousin who bumped his head. We go through the story pretty much daily: Charlie bumped his head, he cried, his mom picked him up, gave him a hug and kiss, rubbed his back, and said “It’s OK, Charlie.” The protagonist’s slow recovery in “Boo Hoo Bird” deviates from the story she knows so well, and I think it distresses her. I don’t think she’s consciously aware of the concept of manipulating a situation so that others can continue to dote on you, though if we’re up from 3:30-5:00am again tonight I’ll start to wonder. But for now she clearly doesn’t get that bird is being a whiny baby.

We have the book for another couple of weeks before it has to go back to the library, and I’m hoping that Zadie comes around and gives it another shot. The illustrations are bold, bright, and cartoony. The pages are filled with chaotic flowers and the animals’ expressions are loving and kind. And for an extremely mom-attached kid it’s a good example of the ways in which different people can help.