By far, this is my most favorite book to read; my poor, dog-eared, taped-together, mass-market version has yellowed pages and many stains and has been read so many times that I have to be very careful when opening the cover. When I tell people that this is my favorite book, I’ll get answers ranging from, “Oh?” to “That rabbit book?” each with the look of “why would she love a children’s book about bunnies?”
I decided to look online to see when the book was published (1972) and I was very disappointed with the description by Wikipedia: “Set in southern England, around Hampshire, the story features a small group of rabbits.” Wow.
But it’s not a story featuring “a small group of rabbits.” This is a book about travel and hardship, relationships and war. There are stories within the book, fairy tales for rabbits, about El’ahrairah, the trickster, which are very reminiscent of the Coyote stories of the Navaho nation.
All the characters are fully developed in this book and each has his strengths and weaknesses. My favorite character is Bigwig (or Thlayli); he has a gruff exterior hiding a heart of gold. He is the go-to hero of the story, the one character that the others all rely on. The two main characters of the story are Hazel and Fiver, brothers, who lead a band of misfits across England through danger, both physical and emotional, to find the best place for the group to live.
The descriptions of the heath and downs of England are wonderful and while I have yet to travel to southern England, I can picture in my mind the fields and streams and woods that the group traveled through to get to Watership Down. And even though the England of this book is probably not the England of 2021, the ideas resonate through all time allowing the reader a glimpse into a special world.
At 413 pages, it can be daunting; my kids have yet to get through it. But it is a book for all ages and one that everyone should read.