Down the Hole
by Scott Slater; illus. by Adam Ming
Primary    Clarion/HarperCollins    40 pp.
10/23    9780358683346    $19.99

Wily Fox meets his match in crafty Rabbit­, as the would-be predator waits by a bunny hole. Underneath the ground, the light from the hole shines down on a rabbit listening alertly while the rest of the bunnies spring into action. Some have hard hats and shovels, while others pore over a map, looking as if they are strategizing. Fox wants Rabbit to come up from the hole and starts his pitch: “Might a kind bunny help out a poor fox?” Rabbit pretends not to be able to hear him properly. While the pair goes back and forth, the scene pulls back to show the bustling underground warren with the bunnies scurrying purposefully around. Ming’s pictures (digitally created and combined with gouache-painted elements) brim with energy and expression, using round panels, which evoke the shape of the hole, to move the story along. Rabbit persuades Fox to take a few steps backward—unwittingly following the route the construction-clad bunnies have been digging—and to start jumping up and down. Ming uses the upper third of the double-page spread to show Fox comically bouncing, while underneath, the other two-thirds of the page show another, much larger and more ferocious neighbor of the bunnies directly under Fox’s feet. Though it is a life-and-death battle, the warm colors, humorous details, and skillfully paced writing and pictures make this a very funny and satisfying­ treat.

From the November/December 2023 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.