Pat Zietlow Miller's (Sophie's Squash) elegant text urges adventure yet assures readers that they can go home again. Eliza Wheeler (Miss Maple's Seeds) visualizes a gorgeous golden-hued road trip, over hill and dale, bridges and streams, as the bike-riding rabbit hero strikes out and makes friends along the way.
Miller's second-person narration keeps the rabbit's gender neutral, allowing all readers to identify with the rabbit: "If you yearn for the ocean or wish for a stream,/ roads bring you closer to reaching your dream." Wheeler augments the journey theme with a series of double-page scenes that show the rabbit's approach on the left, and departure on the right; so we see an owl flying while carrying a valise and making eye contact with the rabbit on the left, and by the right-hand page, the owl is traveling in the rabbit's bike basket. The serpentine route allows readers easily to find the rabbit from the front and side views. The two acquire mouse passengers headed downstream in a boat, then part ways a bit later. Wheeler alters the perspectives, as the rabbit and owl wave from a bridge to the mice in their boat below. While the narrative headings (e.g., "Roads...reach"; "Roads...merge") call attention to themselves, the rest of the text smoothly integrates the metaphors of travel.
Children will enjoy searching for the rabbit on each spread, while adults will appreciate the sage nuggets (e.g., on life's bridges: "Choose to cross over./ Follow your heart"). Just the book for graduates of lower elementary school right up through college. --Jennifer M. Brown, children's editor, Shelf Awareness