Kids into books - Harriet's Hare

This weeks title: Harriet's Hare

Author: Dick King-Smith

Publisher: Corg/Random, $12.95

Illustrator: Valerie Littlewood

Age group: 7-9 years



Harriet walked into the middle of the circle. It was big, perhaps twenty metres across, and all the corn in it was squashed down to the ground, flat, as though an enormously heavy weight had rested there.

As she stood there now, in the stillness, with no sound but distant birdsong, a hare suddenly came out into the corn circle and stopped and sat up. It turned its head a little sideways, the better to see her.

Harriet stood stock-still. Aren't you handsome, she thought, with your tawny coat and your black-tipped ears and your long hind legs. Don't run away. I won't hurt you.

For a moment the hare stayed where it was, watching her. Then, to her great surprise, it lolloped right up to her.

Surprise is one thing, but total amazement is quite another, and that was what Harriet next felt when all of a sudden the hare said, loudly and clearly, 'Good morning.'