Little Grey Rabbit is the heroine of a collection of Animal genre-fantasy stories by Alison Uttley. The first book, The Hare, the Squirrel, and the Little Grey Rabbit was published in Great Britain in 1929 and first illustrated by Margaret Tempest. The books are slice of life type stories that usually deal with Grey Rabbit and her friends outwitting an enemy, celebrating a holiday, or enjoying an activity.
The Little Grey Rabbit’s Story Treasury is a hardcover book and it contains the following Little Grey Rabbit stories:
- The Hare, the Squirrel and the Little Grey Rabbit
- How Little Grey Rabbit Got Back Her Tail
- The Great Adventure of Hare
- The Story of Fuzzypeg
- Squirrel Goes Skating
- Little Grey Rabbit’s Christmas
As you can see from the titles sometimes Grey Rabbit is more of a background character in the stories. For example, The Story of Fuzzypeg is more centered on Milkman Hedgehog’s family.
This anthology includes additional features such as a book-plate page, table of contents, a letter from an editor, biographies of Uttley and Tempest, Uttley’s foreword, character descriptions, preview summaries, and a quiz. I think these features elevate the book to collector’s keepsake or gift edition quality, which judging by the dust jacket flap copy, it seems to advertise and appeal to people who grew up with the stories and simultaneously reaches out to a new generation who may have never heard of the Little Grey Rabbit. For me, it was an economical way of sampling the series and getting a quick starter collection of the stories, especially when some of the older books are offered at $12.00 a piece.
Book-plate
The book-plate page includes an illustration from Grey Rabbit’s Christmas, and has two blank lines below the “This book belongs to:” Enough room for the child to write his or her own name, and siblings too.
A letter from editor Susan Dickinson
Susan Dickinson was the Children’s Books editor for Williams Collins during the 1960’s, when they acquired the Little Grey Rabbit books from Heineman. She knew the books from childhood and shares that as editor she got to visit Alison Uttley and Margaret Tempest at their respective homes. She touches on the tension between the two ladies regarding the creation of Grey Rabbit, stating that Alison Uttley’s text came first, but acknowledges the importance of Margaret Tempest’s illustrations to the success of the books and realizing the characters. Dealing with both ladies required diplomacy on Dickinson’s part, but she remembers them fondly and gives testimony to the authenticity of Uttley’s country background.
About the Author and About the Illustrator
Alison Uttley and Margaret Tempest are given two pages a piece for their biographies. The biographies are tactful and stick to details such as date of birth, death, education, accomplishments and careers. Black and white portraits of each lady are included at the beginning of their biographies. Alison Uttley is pictured with a copy of Country Child and Margaret Tempest is pictured with a couple of Little Grey Rabbit books.
Foreword by Alison Uttley
I was glad this was included, because I really can’t imagine a Grey Rabbit book without this foreward—but there are some reprints, which omit it. The foreword introduces “the country ways” of Grey Rabbit and her community, and frames the stories in a turn of the 20th century setting. It’s a touch idealized, but also relates an interesting pride of country self-sufficiency and making do with regional resources. For example, wood as a fuel because coal wasn’t available, or tisanes made from herbs rather than imported tea leaves.
Preview Summaries
Each stories contains a small paragraph, printed in italics, describing the plot of story without giving too much away.
Quiz
A two page quiz and answer key is at the very end. The questions are simple, and there are five questions for each story. The answer key is thorough; it not only has the answer, but also cites the page number where the answer may be found.
Book Cover
It’s handsomely designed, blue with gilt outlining and a lot of Grey Rabbit silhouettes, that look like they were based off of Margaret Tempest’s illustration of Grey Rabbit running home with the book of Riddles from How Little Grey Rabbit Got Back Her Tail. The cover picture is one my favorites; Little Grey Rabbit en route to Weasel’s house and armed with her rescue tools.
Interior
More silhouettes of Grey Rabbit—white on a blue background are printed on the end papers. Margaret Tempest’s illustrations are creatively used to decorate the additional feature pages, for example some are edited to have white photograph borders and a drop shadow. They are orientated around the text so the finished result resembles a scrapbook layout.
Reasons You May Want to Purchase
It works as a good read-a-long companion to the audiobook version, the only difference is the biographies, letter from editor and quizzes.
It’s a good deal and I heartily recommend it to any fan of Alison Uttley, Margaret Tempest and the Little Grey Rabbit books. It can save some wear and tear on your first editions or childhood copies. It’s still available new from Amazon UK directly and second-hand on Amazon’s marketplace site.
Publisher: Templar Publishing, 2013. £12.99 $13.75 or less used.
ISBN: 978-1-84877-869-6
Little Grey Rabbit Scholar 