Snow Rabbit by Camille Garoche
The Snow Rabbit by Camille Garoche
This wordless picture book is is enchanting, made even more so by Garoche's 3D, cut-paper illustrations that are then photographed with filters that add to the story. Garoche has created a muted scene, with background colors in the cold grays of winter, allowing characters to stand out in reds, whites, purples and blues. The simplicity of the silvery, monochromatic backgrounds set the stage perfectly for the magical story of the snow rabbit.
Through a window, sisters notice something outside in the snowfall. Over the course of several pages, readers see one of the sisters leave the house, gently retrieve a rabbit from the snow and bring it indoors. Returning to the house and placing the rabbit in her sister's lap, readers learn that the other sister is in a wheelchair. Together, the two nurse the rabbit then venture out in to the snow to return it to the nearby woods.
Setting the rabbit free, the sisters are surprised to see the rabbit grow in size with every page turn. The girls follow it into the woods where the wheelchair becomes stuck. Far from home and with the sky darkening and birds perching on the branches around them, the girls huddle for warmth, the rabbit, now the size of a horse, watches nearby. Noticing him, one sister helps the other onto the back of the rabbit, now elephant sized, and he carries her home. The final pages show the sisters, back home, gazing, once again, at the rabbit outside the window.
