A Review of Ruth Bornstein's BRAVE BUNNY

[Note: Beverly Slapin at Oyate compared Indian Bunny and Brave Bunny (for background see the blog post on August 14, 2006). She sent her review to me. With her permission, I'm posting it below. Her review may not be published elsewhere without her written permission. Remember to visit the Oyate site to order children's books about American Indians. And if you want more of their reviews, you won't regret getting Oyate's Through Indian Eyes: The Native Experience in Books for Children, and A Broken Flute: The Native Experience in Books for Children. --Debbie]

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In 1973, Golden Gate Junior Books published Ruth Bornstein's little book, INDIAN BUNNY. In the same year, it was picked up by Scholastic, "by arrangement with Children's Press." Bornstein dedicated INDIAN BUNNY "to Noah, Jonah, Adam, and Jesse," whom we can presume to be her children. Here is the entire text of INDIAN BUNNY:

One day a bunny said,

Good-by, I'm going to be an Indian.

I'll follow the stream

And I'll walk along a hidden forest trail

—so silently

that not even the deer will hear me.

In the stream I'll find a tadpole

and he'll tell me how he turns into a frog.

I'll come to a meadow

and do a deer dance when the sun is high.

I'll climb a tree

and look far out.

An eagle will come to his nest,

so I'll hide in my friend the Owl's house

and watch him.

I'll climb down and find a feather the eagle

has floated down to me.

Then I'll follow the hidden trail

to the place where the animals meet.

and I'll watch them.

And when the sun is low

I'll silently steal away.

I'll gather round stones

to mark a place.

And I'll rub two sticks together

to make a fire.

I'll sit by my fire.

Maybe I'll hear the drums far off—

faintly

faintly.

And I'll beat my drum in the night.

My friend the Owl will hear me.

And when the moon is high

and I crawl into my tepee,

my friend will fly over to say,

Sweet dreams.

That's all of it. A quiet, gently told tale with soft cadence; perfect to read in a dim light to little kids warmly tucked in bed. A sweet little goodnight story for the littlest kids to fall asleep to. Except that it's racist in its inception and imagery. A little bunny goes off and plays Indian, doing all the things that "Indians" do in the imaginations of non-Indian kids and their parents.

In 2003 (thirty years later), Gibbs Smith Publisher morphed INDIAN BUNNY into BRAVE BUNNY. Ruth Lercher Bornstein dedicated BRAVE BUNNY to "Jacob, Gabriel, Joseph, Rebekah, Kalia, and Olivia," whom we can presume to be her grandchildren. According to the publisher, BRAVE BUNNY was edited by Jennifer Grillone. The CIP summary: "A bunny decides that it is time to go into the world to meet and learn from other animals, especially his friend Owl."

So what kind of editing was done? The second line and the last line.

One day a bunny said,

Good-by, I'm going out into the world.

And when the moon is high

and I crawl into my tepee,

my friend will fly over to say,

Good night, Brave Bunny.

Some green and blue tint was added to the pictures. That's all. "Brave Bunny" is still sneaking around, wearing a feather, doing a "deer dance," rubbing two sticks together to make a fire, beating a drum, and going to sleep in his "tepee." I wonder how much Jennifer Grillone was paid for her "editing," and who thought it was a good idea to bring this offensive little book back into print.—Beverly Slapin

INDIAN BUNNY. No! Now it is BRAVE BUNNY --- And TEN LITTLE RABBITS

A reader (Amanda) wrote to me about Indian Bunny, a picture book she found in her local public library. In the story, a bunny decides he wants to be an Indian. According to the Library of Congress catalog, Indian Bunny (written and illustrated by Ruth Bornstein) was first published in 1973 by Childrens Press. But, as Amanda found out, it was republished in 2003 with a new title. It went from Indian Bunny to Brave Bunny. Why the change from "Indian" to "Brave"?!

Other than the title, it is the same book. At the Amazon site, you can get the older one in a used copy. There are three reviews which say in part:

"Despite what some would consider a politically incorect titile, INDIAN BUNNY is a sweet story that young chilren enjoy and instills in them a small amount of respect for cultures other than their own."

and

"A very pro-native American (and pro-Pagan) introduction for the very young. "

and

"This was my first and favorite book in the world! It is a simply written and illustrated tale of a bunny who decides, one day, that he wishes to be an Indian. His story unfolds accordingly, along the banks of streams, and in fields and trees where he meets and befriends sacred animals and practices the ancient ways. The beauty of the story is its simplicity and profound sense of respect and mystery. It is a gentle spiritual quest suitable for even the youngest children or early readers. I still love it!"

Of course, bunnies appear frequently in children's books, and there is at least one very popular book that features bunnies dressing up like Indians. Ten Little Rabbits by Virginia Grossman came out in 1991. The illustrations (by Sylvia Long) are attractive. No doubt, some view the title as a clever take-off on "Ten Little Indians" which many children still sing in their pre-school classrooms.

It is a counting book, so (by definition), each page features a numeral and objects to count. In this case, the objects for counting are rabbits dressed in the regalia (note I did not say 'costume')* of a specific tribal nation. I urge readers---especially Native ones---to take a look at the book. Is your tribe represented? Is it correctly represented?

As some of you may know, I am Pueblo Indian, tribally enrolled at Nambe Pueblo in New Mexico. In Ten Little Rabbits, there is a page intended to show Pueblo Indians. On that page, two male rabbits are shown dancing in Pueblo-like attire, standing in front of an adobe wall. But! They are shown facing each other, and there are only two of them (this is the page for the numeral two). There are no dances at Nambe that are done that way.

At the end of the book is a double-page spread (two pages facing each other) that have "information" about each tribe depicted in the book. I deliberately put "information" in quotation marks, because the "information" about Pueblo people is wrong. Grossman says that we "stage" a dance in which the male dancers "leap and stamp to wake up the spirits."

Sadly, this "information" makes the book more attractive to parents and teachers who are trying to bring accurate and authentic books to the classroom. I'm sure that Grossman and Long didn't intend to dupe their readers, but I think they've done all children a disservice. Once again, Native people are objectified (one little, two little....), and these gorgeous illustrations and "information" add to the already too-big pile of hooey that passes for knowledge about American Indians.

Next time you're in your local library, see if Ten Little Rabbits is on the shelf. If you're willing, approach the librarian, and point out problems with the book. It has FACTUAL errors. In my view, it should be weeded (pulled off the shelf and taken out of circulation).

If you're interested in reading more about Ten Little Rabbits, see Theresa L. McCarty's article "What's Wrong with Ten Little Rabbits?" published in 1995 in a journal called The New Advocate (volume 8, #2, page 98).