Marshmallow Rabbit by Lois Wickstrom – Review by Angela Hayes

Marshmallow Rabbit by Lois Wickstrom
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

2.5 – 3 Stars

Marshmallow Rabbit by Lois Wickstrom is an illustrated children’s story aimed at children ages 4 to 8years. This story gave me some “Tar Baby/Br’er Rabbit” and “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory/Willy Wonka” vibes, which I liked. The illustrations are cute, colourful, interesting, and engaging, and helped to bring everything to life.
Annabelle has been stealing candy from Mr. Bonbon’s candy factory. Every time there is a factory tour, Annabelle is there taking whatever she sets her mind on, becoming bolder with each visit. Mr. Bonbon is determined to teach her a lesson, and so creates a giant, sticky, marshmallow rabbit that he hopes Annabelle will not be able to resist. What happens when Annabelle grabs the sticky rabbit to take home with her? Well, you can probably guess- but no spoilers from me- so you’ll just have to read the story to find out what happens here.
I really wanted to ‘enjoy’ this story- and would have liked to have read it to my grandchildren- BUT, I hated the way the story ended and really feel that the ‘message’ in this book is wrong, and would be misconstrued. I feel like Annabelle got away with very bad behaviour— rewarded even— and that’s not a message I want any child to learn. Stealing is NOT ok, and shouldn’t be rewarded. Especially since this is not a ‘one-off’ occurrence, or out of necessity (due to homelessness/starving etc), or even that Annabelle learned her lesson and turned over a ‘new leaf’— nope— instead, this was just an entitled child thinking they could do whatever they liked, and get away with it, and the got rewarded on top of it all—- plus thinking she ‘got-one-over’ on Mr. Bonbon, too. Well, that’s how I say it anyway. But maybe you might view it differently…
Happy Reading…

Reviewed by @angelahayes

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