Tanya and I are fans of "philistine" drawings in the style of Beatrix Potter. And so we buy or take in the library all the stories where there are similar illustrations. We look, we look... We invent our own stories based on the pictures we have already seen. The most popular books for us, as well as for most of today's children, are the series "Once upon a time there were Rabbits", "Tales of the Fox Forest" and "Blackberry Glade". And for those who are not yet familiar (for sure there are such readers) with these tales, we will now arrange a detailed analysis of each series. With a demonstration of pictures, our opinion about books and even show cartoons.
All three series are quite good and kind. No slang expressions, no poisonous flowers in illustrations and no childish frills. The quality of the books is also great. The paper is thick, not translucent, the covers are hard.But, having become acquainted with each series, I want to express my opinion about each. Still, they are different, these stories.
So here are our book reviews.
A series of books "Once upon a time there were rabbits"
These are the shortest stories. The simplest presentation style. Therefore, you can read them from an earlier age. If you remove the illustrations, the books will lose 90% of their charm. Tanya fell in love with rabbits from about two years old (these books were the first ones taken from the library, and only then I began to buy them for personal use).
When rabbits began to dream of me at night from endless reading, we began to invent stories from pictures, since they are stuffed with the smallest details, tiny houses at the roots of trees, millimeter mice and hedgehogs, acting as a support group for the main characters - five rabbits and their dad and aunt.
The adventures of five rabbits (four brothers and one sister) are quite a good instructive character - the rabbits will start a fire because of the desire to fry donuts, then they will start repairs in a new house and get all the walls dirty, then skiers will disrupt competitions by sledding. This is what they do together. They love to bring excitement to adults and alone - to go into the desert to look for a baobab or to escape from a new house and pitch a tent in the yard of the old one. Or even make contact with a stranger (in the story “The First Ball”, a magpie acts as a scoundrel). Notes of edification about the consequences are in every story. And, if you read carefully and look at the pictures just as carefully, you can easily understand why you don’t need to arrange independence in the kitchen and what a house looks like after a fire.
My rating is 5. We are still reading.
The "silent" heroes of rabbit stories are mice. They are present in almost every illustration. Absolutely tiny, they are also drawn very, very skillfully. The mice also have their own families, houses and gardens.
In different publications, the names of the stories differ - it is not clear why. For example, "Drawing Lesson" may be called "Insidious Tortilla", and "Big Bicycle Race" - "Prize of Aunt Zinnia."There are many editions of these stories, but they duplicate each other without differing in price. I have selected the ones we have. Each book contains three stories:
"Merry Carnival" - "Moving", "Burnt Donuts", "Carnival"
"Meeting with the Pirates" - "Bravo, Bunnies", "A Trip to the Sea", "Road Adventures",
"Sly Fox - Rosemary's Finest Hour", "Sly Fox", "Aunt Zinnia and the Monster",
"Big Bike Race" - "Merry Christmas", "Big Bike Race", "The Invention of Pope Onestus",
"Full Moon Festival" - "Syroezhik's First Ball," "Dandelion Bunny's Garden", "Horitsvetik and Baobab",
"Drawing Lesson" - "Drawing Lesson", "Up the Street with the Band!", "Haunted House" (doubles "Aunt Zinnia and the Monster")
"Air adventures (our publication is called" Hooray, we are flying!
There are also cartoons based on stories, for some reason the heroes are called differently - Rosemary, for example, turns into Basil. One of the cartoons
Some stories are published in one book and cost literally a penny. Another question - why not publish the entire series as separate books? ... It would be convenient to take it with you to polyclinics. Books with three stories are big enough to fit in a bag.
Series "Tales of the Fox Forest". I was talking about one of the books
These stories are longer than rabbit stories. And, accordingly, admirers of the rabbit Roux, the hedgehog and the mouse should also be older than those who adore the family of Pope Onestus. This does not mean that rabbits will cease to be interesting with the advent of Fairy Tales on the bookshelves. No. Fairy tales will be added to the company and will be loved no less.
In the "Fairy Tales" series, the drawings are slightly different. They are not so full of small details, there are no tiny hedgehogs and mice, there is no “world around”. But the characters themselves - Roo, Harvey, Willy and associates look like twins of Beatrix Potter's drawings. Unless the text is more complex.
Tanya didn’t notice, but I was struck by the fact that in “Once upon a time” every little hero has parents - and baby Fiona’s mother runs to her daughter as soon as she starts crying, Gamba has a somewhat asocial grandfather, and in “ Fairy tales of the forest ”the fighting trinity goes about their business without asking permission from their parents for their heroic adventures. The animals have parents, but they are assigned not even second, but third roles. This is a big minus of the series.
fairy tales of the fox forest Online store Labyrinth.
My rating is 4.5
Series "Blackberry Glade"
The same stuffing with small details in each illustration - pots, flowers, sofas, chairs, armchairs, as in "Rabbits". But the drawings are more blurry, although no less interesting to look at. The text is a bit pretentious and, frankly, a little boring. There is a drive, but some kind of slow, unhurried. Although I liked the cartoons based on the Blackberry Glade series. And yet - in the books a literal translation of the names is made, which I don’t really like. Agree, "Mr. Apple" sounds better than "Mr. Apple". It's kind of stupid to translate names in general.
If “Once upon a time” is understandable even to two-year-olds, then “Polyana”, I think, will be interesting to those who are already four years old. Due to the blurry illustrations, it is interesting to look at pictures for older children. But in this series, the largest font - that is, the stories were originally intended for independent reading.
Geneviève Hurier is a French writer, widely known as the author of fairy tales about the rabbit family.
Once Madame Yurier lived in Paris with her husband and four children, worked as a librarian, periodically traveling the world. When the children grew up and Genevieve became a grandmother, then, communicating with her grandchildren, she began to tell them her own tales. From them, the famous stories of the rabbit family subsequently grew.
Genevieve Yurier's books were published in Russia in the "Once upon a time there were rabbits" series by the Makhaon publishing house.
Bibliography
1987 - The first ball of the little rabbit Syroezhik
1988 - Garden rabbit dandelion
1989 - rabbit adonis and baobab
1989 - Star hour Rosemary
1990 - Auntie Zinnia and monster
1991 - pirouette and cunning fox
1992 - Moving
1995 - Burnt donuts
1995 - Merry Carnival
1998 - Hooray, holiday!
1999 - Aunt Zinnia Prize(as I understood it, hurrah, found it!)
1999 - Air Adventures(Hooray, let's fly!)
2000 - Insidious Tortilla(Drawing lesson)
2001 - Forward down the street, with an orchestra!
2002 - House With haunted
2002 - Merry Christmas!
2003 - Big bike race
2003 - Invention of Pope Onestus
2004 - Bravo, rabbits!
2005 - Sailing(A trip to the sea)
2005 - Road adventures
Selected what we have.
Do you have any stories about rabbits?
Having bought one book to try, I could not stop until I bought everything that was available. Books shocked me with their drawings.
I purposefully bought only thick-bound books, because somewhere I saw comparative photographs of large and small books (I don’t remember, maybe here).
As they say - feel the difference.
Large format books, square, white paper, very good quality.
Each fairy tale is an independent story, they are not interconnected.
Drawing lesson
Drawing lesson.
The malevolent turtle Tortilla Hitrolis decided to harm the rabbits, urging them to "fix" the artist's paintings.
Down the street, with the orchestra
The rabbits decided to play musical instruments, but each wanted to outplay the others. So the rabbits nearly got into a fight. The situation was saved by a rabbit orchestra. He then taught them to play in the orchestra.
House with the ghosts.
The rabbits decided to fly a kite, but the thread broke and he flew away. The rabbits went looking for him and found themselves near an abandoned house. This is a classic horror story. Abandoned house, ghosts, thieves, robbers.
Encounter with the Pirates
Bravo, rabbits!
The rabbits offended the magician in the circus. In retaliation for this, he locked them up. But Pirouette and her friends will release the trapped rabbits. And they still have time to visit the circus arena.
A trip to the sea
A family of rabbits goes to sea. There, Dandelion and his doll end up with wild pirate cats, but the rabbit brothers and albatross cormorants rescue the baby, punish the evil ones and learn to sail
road adventure
Russula and Pirouette mistakenly get on a train going the wrong way, and therefore may be late for their cousin's wedding. But with the help of a trolley, and also thanks to their work as stokers on a steam locomotive, the rabbits got to the wedding.
full moon festival
The first ball of the little rabbit Syroezhik
The magpie sends the shy bunny Russula to learn dancing from the Dove and the Frog in order to laugh at him. But the rabbit Russula, with the help of the Owl, passes this test with honor.
Baby Bunny Campion and Baobab
The heron sends Campion, who dreams of exploring the desert to look for the baobab tree. And only thanks to Papa Goretsvetik safely returns home.
Garden of a dandelion rabbit.
The turtle ate and trampled on the harvest of the Dandelion gardener. For this, she promised to restore it with a magic spell. But…
Cunning fox
Finest Hour of Rosemary
In winter, all cabbages froze in the cellar of rabbits. After arguing with his sister, Rosemary Bunny sets off in search of cabbages.
Pirouette and the Sly Fox
Two rabbits met foxes in the forest and, having deceived them, they safely ran home.
Aunt Zinnia and the monster
A scary story from Aunt Zinnia's childhood. Little Zinnia went with her friend's family to pick apples. On the way back, Zinnia fell behind her escorts. Zinnia went to the forbidden High Road (paved highway) where she met a terrible monster with glowing bright eyes.
Available nowhere
Audio format
Books Once upon a time there were rabbits
Books Once upon a time there were rabbits French writer Geneviève Hurier are very popular among preschool children. The series itself has more than twenty books, each tells a single story from the life of a rabbit family.
In the family of rabbits, the stories of which Yurye describes in his books are five little rabbits: four brothers and one sister. And as you understand, with such a number of children, stories can be enough for more books.
All stories are very funny. There are stories in which the main characters are all the rabbits or their relatives at once, and there are fairy tales that are dedicated exclusively to any one character. But we have no doubt that all the stories will be loved by children, especially those who like listen or read about rabbits.
The editors of our site are constantly processing new books from the series once upon a time there were rabbits(creating an audio version of the fairy tale). Therefore, the next stories about the rabbit family regularly replenish the collection of audio fairy tales collected on our website.
