By: Steve Richardson
Illustrated by: Chris Dunn
Publisher: Impossible Dreams Publishing Company
Release date: March 2018
ISBN: 978-0978642211
Reviewed by: Ellen Feld
Revision Date: March 2018
It is early fall and the children have just returned to school. During recess, Jimmy Squirrel brags that his father, who owns the largest construction company in the state, will help him build an amazing tree house. This gets everyone’s attention and they all start talking about what they could each do to build a cool treehouse. Soon, the kids start challenging each other and the big treehouse contest begins!
Jimmy Squirrel is a bit of a braggart, but that doesn’t stop the other kids – Simon Shrew, Arnold Otter, Thomas Fox and many others – from taking up the challenge. However, the kids are a bit surprised when the quiet Paisley Rabbit joins the contest. She doesn’t have a father to help her, and her brother Davy is sick and stays home between hospital visits because he needs a new kidney. How could she expect herself to win the contest?
While the other kids, with the help of their parents, get busy building their tree houses, Paisley Rabbit heads to the library to investigate. Then, as the other treehouses begin to take shape, Paisley Rabbit heads into town for some important meetings… The other kids don’t know about the meetings, only that Paisley Rabbit hasn’t started building his house in the tree. He certainly has no chance of winning the contest.
Paisley Rabbit and the Treehouse Contest was a funny story about a very determined bunny. The boastful Jimmy Squirrel managed to scare off some of the other contestants simply with his repeated bold statements about his tree house, but Paisley Rabbit didn’t let her friend’s comments bother her. Silently and with great determination, she went ahead with her plan. One clever aspect of the story is that the reader is not given enough information to know exactly what the rabbit is doing. There’s a bit of a mystery behind her tree house: what is she doing? – which add an extra element of fun to the story. And no review of this book would be complete without mentioning the absolutely fantastic illustrations that accompany the story. Chris Dunn’s watercolors are amazing and really take the story to a whole new dimension. Finally, there is a fair amount of text, making it suitable for a “co-read” for six-year-olds and a good story for slightly older readers. The author has also provided a Common Core State Standards compliant lesson plan on his website.
