Dream Rabbit
Multi-talented, award-winning author and illustrator Daan Remmerts de Vries delighted his readers last year with this picture book about love and about dreams that come true. Owl falls asleep and has a dream about a white rabbit. The reader wonders whether Owl fancies leg of rabbit for his dinner, but this suspicion turns out to be wrong – Owl is, in fact, a very noble creature.
When he wakes up, he’s overjoyed to find out that the white rabbit really exists. He would very much like to have her all for himself, but Rabbit tells him that she doesn’t belong to anyone. She is her own rabbit, thank you very much.
“That’s strange,” says Owl. “I don’t belong to anyone.” “You’re a dope,” says Rabbit. “So no one wants to have you.” But, in the end, the two of them decide that they’ll have each other. As Rabbit realises, a warm pair of wings is not to be sniffed at, so maybe having Owl isn’t such a bad idea after all. The final pages of the book show Owl and Rabbit’s wedding feast and then a happy procession of children, who look a little owlish and a bit rabbity, all at the same time.
“A sophisticated interplay between story and illustrations. The exuberant collages depict the emotions that the matter-of-fact text barely shows.”
