Rachel Baack
Watership Down originally began as a set or stories the author made up to tell his daughters, who then encouraged him to write it down, and the end product is an epic, near 500-page adventure story beloved by children and adults alike. Its central characters are a group of rabbits, and readers are given the privilege of imagining along with the author what they might say, feel, think, and do as they live out their surprisingly harrowing days. After his brother, Fiver, who has always had a kind of prophetic sixth sense, is stricken with the understanding that their warren is in imminent danger that they must try to escape, Hazel leads a small but scrappy group of rabbits on a quest for a new home. Along the way, the rabbits encounter challenges of all kinds that they overcome by a combination of wits, skill, teamwork, luck, and—seemingly—even supernatural intervention.
The thing I enjoyed most about the book was the way the characters were shown caring about and for one another, learning from their mistakes, and admitting when they were wrong. I kept thinking as I read the book that this is the kind of story that results when a writer is a loving parent who has their children in mind as the intended audience.
Watership Down originally began as a set or stories the author made up to tell his daughters, who then encouraged him to write it down, and the end product is an epic, near 500-page adventure story beloved by children and adults alike. Its central characters are a group of rabbits, and readers are given the privilege of imagining along with the author what they might say, feel, think, and do as they live out their surprisingly harrowing days. After his brother, Fiver, who has always had a kind of prophetic sixth sense, is stricken with the understanding that their warren is in imminent danger that they must try to escape, Hazel leads a small but scrappy group of rabbits on a quest for a new home. Along the way, the rabbits encounter challenges of all kinds that they overcome by a combination of wits, skill, teamwork, luck, and—seemingly—even supernatural intervention.
The thing I enjoyed most about the book was the way the characters were shown caring about and for one another, learning from their mistakes, and admitting when they were wrong. I kept thinking as I read the book that this is the kind of story that results when a writer is a loving parent who has their children in mind as the intended audience.