Watership Down: Richard Adams

This was a clever (though very long) children’s book about rabbits. I like that they had no real special abilities, other than Fiver's visions, and were given human characteristics. Fiver sees something bad coming to their warren, His brother, Hazel, takes the warning to the man in charge. The leader doesn't see any reason for alarm and Hazel and Fiver take a few rabbits that trust Fiver's feeling and leave. They have an adventure finding a new place to live. Shortly after arriving in their new home, two rabbits from the warren find them. They tell how man put poison in their holes and killed everyone. The story has an undertone on how man does not care for, nor understand nature. The rabbits are happy in their new home; they befriend a mouse and a bird. They then realize they don't have any does and if the warren is going to survive they need to find some. There is another adventure where Hazel, the leader of the new warren, is shot and nearly dies. They get two does they rescued from a farm, but decide to visit a bigger warren to try to steal some females. The attack on the large warren does not go as planned, but is still a success. They get several does and go back home to live happily ever after. Until the mouse mentions "new" rabbits. The rabbits from the large warren (lead by Woundwort) have come to take everyone prisoner back to their warren. There is another battle and everyone survives from the new warren. The book ends with Hazel being lead to the "warren in the sky". It was a cute book, but I understand how it was hard to market at first. It does seem like a very long book for a little one's attention span. The action does seem to keep the book moving at a good pace.