The curse of the school rabbit by Judith Kerr

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HarperCollins, 2019. ISBN: 9780008351847. 80pp, hbk.
Ever since it peed on him in Miss Bennett's Year 2 class, Tommy has hated Snowflake the school rabbit. And now it has come to stay because his sister Angie is in Miss Bennett's class and Snowflake needs a home while Miss Bennett goes to look after her mother. But because Angie is so little, Tommy has the task of looking after Snowflake and while the extra pocket money will be handy because he thinks if he wants a new bike he will have to buy it, this is not a task he is savouring. And so the trouble starts . . . dangerous dogs bale him up in the park when he is walking the rabbit; his out-of-work-actor father misses out on a job because Snowflake pees on someone important, Angie gets really sick, Snowflake goes missing . . . There really is a curse!
Written and illustrated during the final year of her life - Kerr died in May 2019 aged 95 - this is an engaging story for the newly-independent reader from the author of classics such as the Mog the forgetful cat series and When Hitler stole Pink Rabbit. It shows she still had all the imagination and wit that she had when she first wrote The tiger who came to tea in 1968 and will probably gain her a whole new legion of fans.
You can read more about her work in this obituary.
Barbara Braxton

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