Home
  • Home
  • Latest Issue
  • Past Issues
  • Authors & Artists
  • Articles
  • Reviews
  • News
  • Forums
  • Search

Tales of Little Grey Rabbit ¦ Tales of Little Brown Mouse

  • View
  • Rearrange

Digital version – browse, print or download

Can't see the preview?
Click here!

How to print the digital edition of Books for Keeps: click on this PDF file link - click on the printer icon in the top right of the screen to print.

BfK Newsletter

Receive the latest news & reviews direct to your inbox!

BfK No. 38 - May 1986

Cover Story
Graham Oakley is this issue's Authorgraph with Henry's Quest (0 333 40841 1, £4.95) on our cover (with a little help from Macmillan). The book is a real treat.

  • PDFPDF
  • Printer-friendly versionPrinter-friendly version
  • Send to friendSend to friend

Tales of Little Grey Rabbit

Alison Uttley
 Faith Jaques
(Macmillan Children's Books)
978-0330266017, RRP £3.50, Paperback
5-8 Infant/Junior
Buy "Tales of Little Grey Rabbit (Piccolo Books)" on Amazon

Tales of Little Brown Mouse

Alison Uttley
 Faith Jaques
(Macmillan Children's Books)
978-0330292436, RRP £3.50, Paperback
5-8 Infant/Junior
Buy "Tales of Little Brown Mouse (Piccolo Books)" on Amazon

Handsome editions of these two collections of these beautiful classic stories. The tales in Little Grey Rabbit were amongst the first that the author ever wrote for children - in the thirties, I wish that this collection could have included a foreword the writer put in my early childhood edition, then modern children would have learned that ' ... the country ways of Grey Rabbit were the country ways known to the author'. But I think the young will still hear the strong voice of a writer who drew on her own childhood. The tales still work on the level of 'what happens next'. The characters live as freshly as ever: the practical Grey Rabbit; the boastful Hare; the timid Squirrel; the Wise Owl.

The Tales of Little Brown Mouse came much later in Alison Uttley's output - in the fifties. If anything, the descriptive language is more vivid. Read the first page of the first story to see how a writer first creates a place for her readers (and listeners) to be. The splendid upwardly-mobile characters provide as much pleasure as ever.

These editions are visually appealing, with delightful covers. The gifted modern illustrator has been generous in not veering too far from Tempest's originals, yet brining her own idiosyncratic touches to the creatures and places. The freshness of the pictures heightens the vigour of the language. Copies please of the bookshop.

Reviewer: 
Colin Mills
  • About us
  • Contact us
  • Help/FAQ
  • My Account