Review Detail

'Fox & Rabbit Make Believe' by Beth Ferry, illustrated by Gergely Dudas, will open up anyone's imagination. Besides showing that friendship is something that can be spread around to multiple people (or animals, in this case), the characters have fun pretending and enjoying each other's company. At one point, they pretend there are evil monkeys that they have to fight and they have to cross the Island of Bars (monkey bars) to beat them. They claim that all of the red leaves are bits of burning lava in a volcano and try to escape it. Sometimes they have to remind each other that it's just a game, but they learn through it all that courage, understanding, and most importantly, friendship help make their adventures triumphant.

The illustrations are colorful and do a nice job of extending the words in the bubbles above each image. The cartoon-like nature of the book is a welcome concept for young readers who are beginning to read and understand dialogue and how to understand characters' feelings, sometimes based only on the way they are presented in an illustration.