Betty Bunny Loves Chocolate Cake (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Betty Bunny Loves Chocolate Cake Deborah Stevenson Kaplan, Michael B. . Betty Bunny Loves Chocolate Cake; illus. by Stéphane Jorisch. Dial, 2011. 32p. ISBN 978-0-8037-3407-4 $16.99 R 5-8 yrs. When young Betty Bunny discovers the glory of chocolate cake, she goes overboard in a big way: she declares she's going to marry it when she grows up, she eats mud in the playground hoping it'll taste just like her beloved dessert, and, when thwarted in her ambition to have it for dinner, she starts a food fight in the family kitchen. Her mother tries to help Betty learn patience, but is Betty Bunny really ready for delayed gratification? Though there are a few flaws—the text is a little lengthy and the conclusion deviates from the story's earlier psychological realism—the text combines apt, authentic observation (Betty's switch from fierce rejection of the untried chocolate cake to whole-souled adoration) and effortlessly funny dialogue ("You're going to have really weird-looking kids" is her older brother's response to Betty's marital plans). Betty Bunny's oh-so-tasty monomania will have youngsters nodding in sympathetic agreement, and they'll fully understand her inability to leave a slice of cake untouched in the fridge. Jorisch's art is a treat: he employs delicate, slender lines and soft watercolor and gouache tints, occasionally textured with pencil, while imbuing his anthropomorphized rabbits (and lions, pigs, mice, and birds) with an endearing individuality and exuberance. The Bunny tribe is particularly winsome (oldest brother Bill is clearly a teenager, slouching with a backward baseball cap perched between his rabbity lop ears), and their kitchen gathering has authentic busyness tempered with fanciful charm. The dilemma of being unable to resist a favorite treat or pastime is one with which many kids are familiar, and they'll yearn along with Betty. Copyright © 2011 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois