Two White Rabbits and West Coast Wild -- Book Reviews

Disclosure: Groundwood Books gave me a copy of this book free of charge for this review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation.  As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

I always like books that help us explore a different part of the world or give us a glimpse into another life. Today we are sharing two books that do just that. The first is Two White Rabbits written by Jairo Buitrago, illustrated by Rafael Yockteng, and translated by Elisa Amado.

This story is about a girl and her father leaving their country, Mexico, to come to a new place, the United States. The girl tells about the journey and what she sees. Since it is told by the girl's point of view it at times is not clear exactly what is going on. This confused Hazel a bit and gave us a chance to talk about it. She had many questions about what was going on since the girl more describes what she sees. She counts the animals and other things she sees along the way.

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They ride on a train (the top) and see many other people who seem to live on the train or by the tracks.

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 She also sees soldiers with guns. This of course started a conversation about why the soldiers might be there and why they have guns. We also talked about whether it was really safe to be riding on the top of trains.

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 At one point her father helps out in a small store and the boy there gives her two white rabbits. She gives him her stuffed animal. She lets the rabbits go free. It is an interesting story that leaves the reader wanting to know more. the pictures are wonderful and it begins a discussion on a very different life than ours.

The second book is West Coast Wild written by Deborah Hodge and illustrated by Karen Reczuch.  This beautiful book shares the natural things found on the West Coast of North America with many of the things being in Canada. It goes through the alphabet and shares something for each letter. What I learned was there is an ancient rainforest in the Pacific Rim National Park Reserve. There is also the area known as the Great Bear Rainforest further north. 
 

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Now I originally picked this book to review because we never made it to Seattle to visit my sister before she moved back to Connecticut so Hazel has not seen the Pacific Ocean or the West Coast. Plus she loves alphabet books and animals, so this seemed like a perfect match. It is! She loves it and tells me every time I read it to her.  

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 The pictures are beautiful and there is information about the various thing on each page. It is wonderful. The book is a great quality as well. We really enjoy it. The book shares things on land as well as in the sea.

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 Hazel loved looking at the pictures and finding things in the details like the sea anemones in the one above. She noticed them before I read the page. This is such a fun book to explore the other side of our continent for us and it really gives an idea of what is out there.