The Magic Rabbit

Easter is upon us, and what better season than to feature a book about a rabbit!

Here is one of my more recently published favorite books. The Magic Rabbit by Annette Cate was released in 2007 -- three years ago, and I love the book just as much today! The story is about a magician and his rabbit, and what happens one day when something goes awry during one of their outdoor performances.

Annette Cate, the author/illustrator, is someone I used to work with many moons ago (at Tom Snyder Productions). She always impressed me back then when she was the Art Director of the Dr. Katz animated television show. When, by chance, I discovered her book on the shelf of my local bookstore three years ago, I was ecstatic. When I actually sat down and read the book, I was impressed yet again with Annette's many talents. This is a perfect combination of a really good story and really good art. All this, and at the time Annette was but a first-time-published author/illustrator. The Magic Rabbit even earned a Publisher's Weekly starred review. Pretty impressive!

The art is all greyscale black pen line work (with just a dab of color which is used as a device to help move the story along). Detailed work, but not so tightly rendered that there is a lack of of motion and gesture to the illustrations. It's very beautifully done.

I wrote a blog post about The Magic Rabbit years ago when I first discovered it. You can read it here.

Check out The Magic Rabbit!