I chose this book by its cover! 😄 It has been a bit since I've read anything from the fantasy genre, and the cover if this book, the second by author Vitalis, gave away the genre easily. The Rabbit's Gift is a story based on a traditional French folktale called La fee aux choux, or The Cabbage Fairy. In that story, instead of babies being delivered by a stork, which is a traditional tale in this part of the world, babies come from cabbage plants. Babies coming from cabbages?!?!! Like you, I'm guessing, I'd never heard of such a tale!
Vitalis turned this folktale a little sideways, but in The Rabbit's Gift, two main characters - Fleurine and Quincy - both have an interest in babies and cabbages, as well as purple carrots (a change from the original folktale). Fleurine is the only daughter of a queen-like mother, and longs for the company of a sister. Quincy is a young rabbit in a family of many rabbits, trying to make his mark in the world by helping deliver babies to families who have left bunches of purple carrots out as gifts, in return for a baby! It sounds much more complicated than it really is. Luckily, Vitalis does a nice job of making sense of this story and keeping you, the reader, engaged at the same time.
This story reminded me a lot of The Tale of Despereaux, by Kate DiCamillo. That is a "story of a mouse, a princess, some soup, and a spool of thread". Despereaux is an award-winning book that everyone should read, especially fans of fantasy and folktales! I won't go so far as to say everyone should read The Rabbit's Gift, but it's a solid story just the same, and if you're looking for a good fantasy, this one is engaging and good, and won't take a lot of figuring out along the way. 4 paws!
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