I was introduced to this book by my next door neighbour, whose son is 2 and has a nut-brown hare toy. When my nephew was born last year, I bought him some books, and since I am currently unable to see him very often, I now read to him over facetime. This was the first book we did, and I didn’t read it before-hand I just dived straight in.
First impressions were not great. For a book for small children there’s a lot of words on the page, which distracted me from the illustrations which are lovely. I don’t think my nephew was too bothered, as he seemed more focused on trying to eat the book as my sister turned the pages.
The story starts simply enough, with little nut-brown hare off to bed. Before they go, they try and tell big nut-brown hare how much they love them. It’s at this point, that for me, the wheels come off. Instead of simply allowing little nut-brown hare to have their moment, big nut-brown hare has to one up each one of their claims. Just because you’ve got bigger arms and can hop higher doesn’t make little nut-brown hare’s love any less valid.
I was surprised by my strong reaction to the story. I had a horrible response to big nut-brown hare, quite possibly because I’ve met people who’ve behaved like that in real life and I can’t stand them. As a result I can’t recommend the book, but my nephew made it quite clear he enjoyed chowing done on it so I suppose there’s no accounting for taste.
