Hop by Jorey Hurley

 Hop (2016) Written and illustrated by Jorey Hurley.

Hop gives insight into a day in the life of a cottontail rabbit family using simple one word narration and earthy toned illustrations. Each spread focuses on a single action word like “Hop,” “Listen,” and “Hide.” Since the story follows a mother rabbit and her young, each word feels like a command given to the children by the mother to teach them how to approach life and survive. Even though the book only has a total of 15 words in its entirety, it does not lack a plot by any means. The book does not need subject-verb structured sentences because right away the reader will realize that the rabbits are the subjects. They are the ones taking each action, and it is clear through the use of the images. Instead, the child can focus on what each action means and why the rabbits are taking the action based on the clues they get from the illustrations.

The illustrations themselves are matte saturations of natural colors mainly involving greens and browns. There are two illustrations that use a lack of color to give a jarring effect. In these images, white is the dominant color while the natural color palette is minimized. These are the pages of the words “Freeze” and “Warn” where there is a predator nearby and the command is more important than the others. To add to the tension of these pages, Hurley also makes the rabbits smaller on the page, so the reader can focus on all aspects of the image, taking in the danger as well as the safety tactics. Though the images are minimal in design and color, they still include small details that make the story more enjoyable and impactful. For one, when the reader is presented with the word “Warn,” they can find the mother rabbit thudding her foot to warn her young if they look close enough. A child can also find other animals and nests in the underground tunnels while the rabbits hide from the fox showing a connectedness in nature that they may have not put together before.
    The main point of this book seems to be to teach children about nature, specifically of an animal they have probably seen in their own backyards. Even with the simplified text and art, this book does a good job at illuminating the way of the natural world of predators, prey, and habitats. By the end of the book, a child will know what animals prey on rabbits, what a rabbit eats, and how they traverse the world. They may not learn the specific vocabulary for all this knowledge, but they will gain a sense of how the natural order of the world works.