''My Friend Rabbit'' is a children's picture book written and illustrated by Eric Rohmann. Published in 2002 by Roaring Brook Press, the book is a lighthearted tale about the friendship between a mouse and a rabbit. Rohmann won the 2003

Caldecott Medal The Randolph Caldecott Medal, frequently shortened to just the Caldecott, annually recognizes the preceding year's "most distinguished American picture book for children". It is awarded to the illustrator by the Association for Library Servic ...

for his illustrations.American Library Association
Caldecott Medal Winners, 1938 - Present
URL accessed 27 May 2009. The book was adapted into an animated television series in 2007.

Description

''My Friend Rabbit'' is a children's picture book of 32 pages that teaches the readers about toys, trouble, and friendship. The illustrations of the book comprise a simple, heartfelt tale about childhood.

Synopsis

The book begins when Mouse lets his best friend, Rabbit, play with his brand-new

airplane An airplane or aeroplane (informally plane) is a fixed-wing aircraft that is propelled forward by thrust from a jet engine, Propeller (aircraft), propeller, or rocket engine. Airplanes come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and wing configurat ...

, and trouble is not far behind. Rabbit tries to help Mouse with the problem he started by freeing the plane he trapped in a tree. He gets the idea of gathering a bunch of animals and stacking them up in a pile high enough to reach the airplane. He gathers an elephant, a rhinoceros, a sleeping hippopotamus, a deer, a bear, an alligator, a goose (with her goslings who aren't stacked), and a squirrel. Picking up mouse, they get the airplane, but all the animals fall and are mad at Rabbit. But, as Rabbit's friend, Mouse always stays by his side, offering a message about true friendship, so he uses his airplane to get him away from the animals. Unfortunately, they get it stuck in another tree, giving Rabbit another idea.

Television series

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

began airing a Nelvana-produced Canadian animated children's show based on the book in the Autumn of 2007. ''My Friend Rabbit'' aired on

Qubo Qubo ( ; stylized as qubo) was an American television network for children between the ages of 5 and 14. Owned by Ion Media, it consisted of a 24-hour free-to-air television network often mentioned as the "Qubo channel" (available as a digital ...

Treehouse TV Treehouse TV is a Canadian English-language specialty channel for preschoolers aged 2 to 5 that was launched in 1997. Its name comes from YTV's former preschool block, " The Treehouse". The channel is owned by YTV Canada, Inc., a subsidiary of ...

, Playhouse Disney (UK & Ireland), and Disney Junior (Canada) and was awarded the Pulcinella Award for Best Preschool TV Series 2008, and the Alliance of Children's Television award for Best Preschool Series 2009. ''My Friend Rabbit'' was Nominated for 3 Gemini awards for Best Direction (Jason Groh), Best Musical Scoring (John Welsman) and Best Screenwriting (Steve Westren). Steve Westren won the Gemini Award for Screenwriting.

Cast/Characters

Main Characters

* Rabbit (

Peter Oldring Peter James Edward Oldring (born August 25, 1971) is a Canadian actor and comedian. Early life Oldring was born on August 25, 1971, in Drayton Valley, Alberta. He graduated from Sir Winston Churchill High School in 1989 in Calgary, Alberta, ...

) - A rabbit that tries to solve various problems after getting involved in situations with his friends. His catchphrases are "Thumpeka!", "Carrotastic!", "Time for a hop-think", and "Hip-hopperoo!". * Mouse (Richard Binsley) - A mouse who is Rabbit's sidekick and best friend who gets into situations with Rabbit and tries to help solve problems as well. He does not like water or swimming. He

breaks the fourth wall The fourth wall is a performance convention in which an invisible, imaginary wall separates actors from the audience. While the audience can see through this ''wall'', the convention assumes the actors act as if they cannot. From the 16th cen ...

throughout every episode. * Hazel (Denise Oliver) - A squirrel who is a bit like Mouse as she does not like swimming or when she becomes “''a squirrel with a wet tail”''. She spends most of her time dealing with her acorns. * Thunder (Jeremy Harris) - A

rhinoceros A rhinoceros (; ; ), commonly abbreviated to rhino, is a member of any of the five extant species (or numerous extinct species) of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae. (It can also refer to a member of any of the extinct species ...

who tends to be a bit "slower" than the other characters, but is cheerful and loves learning new things. He often makes up songs. * Jasper (Milton Barnes) - An

alligator An alligator is a large reptile in the Crocodilia order in the genus ''Alligator'' of the family Alligatoridae. The two extant species are the American alligator (''A. mississippiensis'') and the Chinese alligator (''A. sinensis''). Additiona ...

, often seen with his fishing stick, which helps him think. He is the most mature and the other characters often go to him for advice. * Edwina (Stacey DePass) - An

elephant Elephants are the largest existing land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant, and the Asian elephant. They are the only surviving members of the family Elephantidae ...

who tends to be excitable and acts like as if she knows better, though she is not always right. * The Gibble Goose Girls - A quartet of goslings that go and do everything together. They each have their own personality, but are almost never seen alone. When they talk, they tend to do it all at once: one girl will start a sentence, and each other girl will complete part of the sentence until they finish. Their names are Coral (Isabel de Carteret), Amber (Hannah Endicott-Douglas), Jade (

Nissae Isen Nissae Isen (born March 3, 1997) is a Canadian voice actress who has voiced prominent young male characters in several television series, including BG's younger brother George in '' Miss BG'' from 2005 to 2008, Yuri from ''My Big Big Friend'' fr ...

) and Pearl (Camden Angelis). They will often chant their names as they walk together.

Double-length episodes

Double-length episodes feature the whole of two normal episodes. As of 2011, one double-length episode has aired so far, and it was titled " Ladybug Day". * Ladybug Day: As Mouse is painting a canvas for ladybug day, he accidentally falls in the paint (raspberry juice). Rabbit, Jasper, Thunder and Hazel are all busy making stuff for the ladybug day. They see Mouse in the paint and help him to get it off with many results, but can't as raspberry juice makes a stain. The ladybugs like Mouse and come to the party.

صديقي الارنب

''صديقي الارنب'' is the Arabic-dubbed version of it, and it was aired on Baraem TV.

Il Mio Amico Coniglio

The Italian language version of My Friend Rabbit is called ''Il Mio Amico Coniglio''. It aired in Italy on

Rai Yoyo Rai Yoyo is an Italian free-to-air television channel owned and operated by state-owned public broadcaster RAI – Radiotelevisione italiana. It is the company's television channel for kids, and is known for its programming for children between ...

Episodes

Season 1

*1. Little Dutch Rabbit / Fishing for the Moon *2. Follow the Leader / Chasing Rainbows *3. Mouse's Moss / The Sounds of Silence *4. Hazel's Big Surprise / The Last Leaf *5. A Gift at Last / The Big To Do *6. Muddy Puddle / Silly Pilly *7. Nest Quest / Bouncy Bog *8. Branching Out / Willow Pond Wackadoo *9. I'm Rabbit, I'm Rabbit / Bogged in Fog *10. Strange Bee-haviour / The Flighty Fly *11. Hazel's Voice / The Perfect Rock *12. Thunder the Poet / The Strawberry Patch *13. Sticky Situation / Ladybug Day

Season 2

*1. The Greatest Invention / Turtle in a Hurry *2. A Private Place / My Droopy Friend *3. Pearl's Pals / For The Birds *4. Hazel's Noise / Don't Touch Mossy *5. Mouse's Mountain / You Be Me *6. Gibble Goose Girls Galore / Scaredy Skunk *7. Edwina's New Friend / Frog On A Log *8. The Mysterious Acorn Mystery / The Big Goose *9. The Hoppiest Wish / Mouse's Mysterious Something *10. Catch Me If You Can / The Snow Geese *11. Honey and Berries / Birthday Mousey *12. Sing A Song / Snowed Under *13. Jasper's Frozen Smarts / Thunder's Idea Maker

References

External links

''My Friend Rabbit'' on Nickelodeon Canada

''My Friend Rabbit'' on Treehouse
*
''My Friend Rabbit''
at the

Big Cartoon Database The Big Cartoon DataBase (or BCDB for short) is an online database of information about animated cartoons, Feature film, animated feature films, Animated television series, animated television shows, and cartoon Short film, shorts. The BCDB proj ...