When our boys were young, a relative gave them rabbit baskets she created from needlepoint canvas. These ended up on our piano during the weeks prior to Easter, and somehow, the Easter Bunny got the idea of putting a few treats in them for the boys to discover in the morning. This started a week or so before Easter and ended when they found the larger baskets the Easter Bunny had hidden for them. Now 21, 20, and 17, these same boys/young men still put those baskets on the piano and find treats the EB still stashes there prior to Easter. If they knew the small baskets were filled by the Easter Cat instead, I wonder if they would care.
In Deborah Underwood's latest book, Here Comes the Easter Cat, a grumpy cat desires to assume the Easter Bunny's role. A clever narrator speaks to the cat, interpreting the cat's body language and reading the pictorial signs the cat displays. Responding to the cat's sign of five hearts, the narrator says, "Well, of COURSE everyone loves the Easter Bunny." The narrator assures the cat that it would be acceptable for him/her to deliver something nice to children...but not the hairballs suggested by the cat's sign. Even the narrator's revelation that the Easter Bunny does not get a single nap (compared to the seven naps taken by the cat that day) does not deter the determined cat. Suffice it to say the cat finds a creative way to deliver treats and include the Easter Bunny, only to express interest in another delivery job at the end.
Readers will surely appreciate the voices in this picture book and the dependence on the artwork (by Claudia Rueda) to tell the story.
I do love that illustration. I wonder if you have shared this book with your students...I love the story of the Easter bunny who still leaves gifts for those very special boys.
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