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Critics' Opinion:
Readers' Opinion:
First Published:
Feb 2006, 228 pages
Paperback:
Jan 2008, 208 pages
Book Reviewed by:
BookBrowse Review Team
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An extraordinary journey, from the depths of the ocean to the net of a fisherman, from the top of a garbage heap to the fireside of a hoboes' camp, from the bedside of an ailing child to the streets of Memphis. And along the way, we are shown a true miracle — that even a heart of the most breakable kind can learn to love, to lose, and to love again.
Once, in a house on
Egypt Street, there lived a china rabbit named Edward Tulane. The rabbit was
very pleased with himself, and for good reason: he was owned by a girl named
Abilene, who treated him with the utmost care and adored him completely.
And then, one day, he was lost.
Kate DiCamillo and Bagram Ibatoulline take us on an extraordinary journey, from
the depths of the ocean to the net of a fisherman, from the top of a garbage
heap to the fireside of a hoboes' camp, from the bedside of an ailing child to
the streets of Memphis. And along the way, we are shown a true miracle — that
even a heart of the most breakable kind can learn to love, to lose, and to love
again.
Chapter One
Once, in a house on Egypt Street, there lived a rabbit who was made almost
entirely of china. He had china arms and china legs, china paws and a china
head, a china torso and a china nose. His arms and legs were jointed and joined
by wire so that his china elbows and china knees could be bent, giving him much
freedom of movement.
His ears were made of real rabbit fur, and beneath the fur, there were strong,
bendable wires, which allowed the ears to be arranged into poses that reflected
the rabbit's mood - jaunty, tired, full of ennui. His tail, too, was made of
real rabbit fur and was fluffy and soft and well shaped.
The rabbit's name was Edward Tulane, and he was tall. He measured almost three
feet from the tip of his ears to the tip of his feet; his eyes were painted a
penetrating and intelligent blue.
In all, Edward Tulane felt himself to be an exceptional specimen. Only his
whiskers gave him pause. They were long and elegant (as ...
To an adult reader the storyline of Edward Tulane is fairly predictable but the writing is anything but. DiCamillo's art is to play our heart strings like a maestro using the vocabulary of a third-grader.
(Reviewed by BookBrowse Review Team).
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Edward Tulane was inspired by a very elegant rabbit "doll" given to Kate by a friend for Christmas a couple of years ago. She says, "Not long after receiving the rabbit, I had this very clear image of him underwater, on the bottom of the sea, minus all of his finery, lost and alone."
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