Rabbit and Bear: Rabbit's Bad Habits: Book 1

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Gorgeously illustrated and with a classic feel, this is a brilliantly funny story of a rabbit and a bear … on the day that a new creature arrives in their valley, trying to Change Everything. Ideal for readers moving on from picture books. If I could combine the two – David Attenborough meets Winnie the Pooh! – that would be something new, I thought. And, as I writer, I always want to try something new. To have a challenge. To solve a problem. Because solving difficult problems is the fun part of life. And so I did a lot of research on rabbits, and bears, and wolves… Armistice Day: A Collection of Remembrance - Spark Interest and Educate Children about Historical Moments From novelist and playwright Julian Gough, and the winner of the Roald Dahl Funny Prize, Jim Field, this is a tale of friendship, wisdom, and how to be REALLY NOISY.

Now, I am not nice, friendly, and perfect. My daughter is not nice, friendly, and perfect. Nobody I know is nice, friendly, and perfect. Everyone I know is complicated and sometimes nice and sometimes nasty and sometimes friendly and sometimes angry and sometimes sulky and sometimes funny and sometimes stupid and sometimes clever and always interesting.There was no conflict; no drama; no STORY. All the animals were polite, well-behaved, and perfect. They had nothing to learn, and nowhere to go. No problem to solve.

From novelist and playwright Julian Gough, and the winner of the Roald Dahl Funny Prize, Jim Field, this is a story of friends, enemies, and how to avoid being pooped on by an icebear.

So my daughter and I started talking about how terrible the book was, and about how it could be better. Great! And what if the rabbit doesn’t help the bear build a snowman? What if the rabbit is jealous, and tries to build his own bigger, better snowman?” Shortlisted for the Sainsbury’s Children’s Book Award and the Children’s Book of the Year in the Irish Book Awards*

The next book in the bestselling series for newly independent readers with these laugh-out-loud tales of friendship, adventure and a little bit of poo! But of course it took AN INCREDIBLY LONG TIME to get from our rough and scruffy bedtime story to the finished book ( Rabbit’s Bad Habits, which was finally published this year with Jim Field’s amazing pictures). I had to get the story as good as I could get it, before my agent could look for a publisher, and get an award-winning, genius illustrator like Jim to bring it to life. And that took a couple of years, because I did it in my spare time. I was good at writing novels (and plays, and poems, and things like the ending to Minecraft, which I wrote for Notch): but I was still learning to write children’s books. I realised that our story was about ten million billion times better than the book we had read. So, when Sophy was asleep, I stayed up late, and wrote it all down… LoveReading4Kids exists because books change lives, and buying books through LoveReading4Kids means you get to change the lives of future generations, with 25% of the cover price donated to schools in need. Join our community to get personalised book suggestions, extracts straight to your inbox, 10% off RRPs, and to change children’s lives. Jim Field: ‘Rabbit was really much easier to design, Bear went through many more stages. Bear was originally a male and it was a suggestion by the team at Hodder to change him to a her. An excellent move as it really changed the dynamics of the whole book in a more positive way.’ Photograph: Jim Field

And no animal I know is nice, friendly and perfect. How boring would THAT be? Animals wee on the carpet sometimes, and sniff each other’s bottoms ALL the time, and chew the furniture. And that’s just our pet cat, Aífe. (If you don’t keep her litter tray clean, she will deliberately poo in your shoe.) And wild animals… are even wilder than that! What is the point of having bears and rabbits in your story if they aren’t WILD, and doing the crazy, surprising, and often rather rude things real bears and rabbits do? As a follow-up to Tara's first book Rabbit & Bear Make a Wish, the graphic novel Rabbit & Bear Return with the Light delves deeper into the human existence as we quest to find meaning. Dealing with themes of purpose, loss, grief, depression, the book brings its reader along for the ride, letting them know that finding and sharing light is not only possible, but probable with the help of friends and insight.

At one point, a third friendly, boring animal arrived, just to give the illustrator something new to draw (she must have been getting bored too). Rabbit’s Bad Habits is a breath of fresh air in children’s fiction, a laugh-out-loud story of rabbit and wolf and bear, of avalanches and snowmen. The sort of story that makes you want to send your children to bed early, so you can read it to them.’ Neil GaimanBut high in the branches, perhaps Bear can show Rabbit how to see the world from a different place … What with Bear’s snoring, and a BANG!BANG!BANG! noise from up in the tree, Rabbit knows that Something Simply Has To Be Done.