Title: Rabbit and Bear: The Lake is Fake

Written by: Julian Gough

Illustrated by: Jim Field

Published by: Hodder Children’s Books

This hysterically funny story for early readers is the sixth book in the Rabbit and Bear series. The format of Rabbit and Bear: The Lake is Fake with its hard back cover and its unusual size gave the book an old-fashioned classic feel. I had not come across the Rabbit and Bear series before and plan to search pout the other books.

Rabbit and Bear wake up after a long winter and are surprised to find their cave full of poo. It is early spring and the snow is beginning to melt so they venture outside only to find more frozen poo around the edge of the lake. Rabbit does not want to clean up the mess as claims the poo does not all belong to them, the other animals were responsible for the mess too. So Rabbit decides that they will look for the perfect place to live somewhere else.

Rabbit and Bear search for their perfect vision with hilarious consequences.

The limited palette of red, black and white for the illustrations is put to good use. I liked the way that when things were at their worse the pages were black and rabbit was feeling more positive, having dreams of a better world, the pages were different shades of red depending on how positive rabbit was feeling.

Eventually they decide to go back home to find all the poo has been cleared up and an abundance of flowers around the lake. Then Rabbit has another vision that is more realistic than the first. The animals work together to make their vision a reality.

I like the way the story went full circle before rabbit discovers his nearly perfect world. It is great Julian Gough does not say everything is completely perfect as we are all aware everyone has their problems but it is as close to perfect as possible. This provides young readers with a realistic view of the world, which is an excellent point for discussion.

Rabbit and Bear: The Lake is Fake, is ideal for children making the transition from picture books to early readers. It is a great book for stimulating discussion on caring for our environment and what would make their world a better place to live.