Little Spotlights: Rabbit & Bear Pest in the Nest – Julian Gough & Jim Field

After the response to the Top Ten Tuesday- Gems with under 1,000 ratings post was immensely positive, it was suggested spotlighting great older books is a great thing and I agree

Rabbit & Bear: Pest In the Nest by Julian Gough, Illustrated by Jim Field

Age group: Young Reader/Early Chapter
Key Words: Nature, Overcoming, New Perspectives, Full Colour Highly Illustrated

Littlefae says

OOH I LOVE THIS BOOK! Rabbit is very grumpy and naughty it’s funny. I like it when he gets so angry he falls over and hurts his eye with the pine cone !
I also like the bit when he sees the forest and tries to be calm- but then he gets grumpy again and he’s really very silly.

Rabbit has woken up by Bear snoring but finds Spring has sprung but everything doesn’t feel right, EVERYTHING is making him ANGRY and that Woodpecker is driving him MAD!

As a parent I love that Rabbit is flawed but that doesn’t mean he is bad and equally he is not fixed after one look at the forest from a new perspective but instead he is trying and this is a powerful metaphor to help young children have realistic expectations of their emotions.

This book is an excellent tool to help children reframe their problems and cope with anger and/or anxiety (both are often linked) an exercise on mindfulness without the ‘worthiness’ that can often accompany and turn people off. I think this needs to be reread more frequently!!

Littlefae would also like everyone to know the illustrations are by Jim Field and she likes his illustrations ALOT.
The Illustrations are as ever a triumph by Jim Field full of depth, texture and detail especially in the playful expressive nature of the animal characters. The whole book is a work of art but especially favourite of mine is the Woodpecker in motion!!

We love Rabbit & Bear and we have the others and are very much looking forward to the next adventure!

Rabbit & Bear: The Pest In the Nest by Julian Gough and Jim Field is published by Hodder Children’s (2017)

We originally received this book for free as part of a review scheme on another platform for no fee or obligation. It appears here because we love it!