Best-selling author and illustrator Judith Kerr tells a wonderfully warm and funny story about the very many things that go wrong when Tommy’s little sister Angie brings home the school rabbit. Snowflake is the star attraction in Angie’s class: he is at the centre of every subject in the curriculum and Angie adores him. But Tommy does not. (And he doesn’t adore Angie very much either…) Tommy recounts the terrible things that go wrong when Snowflake is in the house starting with him peeing on the trouser leg of a visiting famous actor. As far as Tommy is concerned it would be much better if Snowflake went back to school. But luckily for all Snowflake accidently brings Angie and Thomas’s family huge and unexpected good luck!
The laugh-out-loud story of a boy who needs a new bike for Christmas, the rabbit who might help him get it, and a lot of bad luck...From the one and only Judith Kerr, creator of The Tiger Who Came to Tea and Mog the Forgetful Cat!
It all started with the school rabbit... Snowflake is the school rabbit, and Snowflake is TROUBLE. At least that's what Tommy thinks. And when Snowflake unexpectedly comes to stay just before Christmas and EVERYTHING starts to go wrong, it looks like Tommy might be right. Even if he is getting more pocket money for feeding it and might be able to get that new bike after all... With a sick sister left in bed, a snobby actor left with suspiciously damp trousers, and no rabbit anywhere to be seen, Tommy can see his hopes of a new bike for Christmas disappearing as fast as Snowflake. Will Snowflake turn up, and turn out to be more good luck than bad? Or are Tommy and his family DOOMED by the curse of the school rabbit?
A fantastically funny and exquisitely illustrated young fiction title from the iconic Judith Kerr, this is the perfect story for boys and girls of six plus to read alone or with their family - and the perfect gift for everyone!
A funny satire of the film industry, a poignant comment on sibling differences and a timely reminder that we should try to see the good in all sorts of rabbits from an author who lived her life by that maxim. Alex O'Connell, The Times
[The Curse of the School Rabbit] possesses all of [Judith Kerr's] trademark qualities: lyrical artwork, a gently anarchic plot and the warmth and humanity that made her work immune to shifts in publishing fashion. And perhaps what is most impressive in an author of 95: the unfailing ability to see the world through the eyes of a child. Emily Bearn, The Telegraph Review
The last work by the much-lamented Judith Kerr is The Curse of the School Rabbit, a lovely conclusion to her life in books...a very funny story about a little boy and his theatrical little sister and his efforts to do his best by everyone. The pictures are a joy. Melanie McDonagh, Evening Standard
Kerr's distinctive pencil illustrations convey the chaotic fondness of family life throughout her last story. Imogen Russell Williams, The Guardian Review
Is there a more perfect children's writer for this generation than Judith Kerr? . . . The author was a genius, with an affectionate sensibility. The deceptive simplicity of her stories and her capacity to see things from a child's point of view were very rare gifts. Thank you, Judith Kerr. Melanie McDonagh, The Spectator
The final work from the irreplaceable Judith Kerr, The Curse of the School Rabbit is suffused with her distinctive good nature and sly mischief. The tale of a naughty bunny and their exasperated young handler pops with Kerr's singular artwork and stands as a shining testament to her unique storytelling skills. Waterstones
A new family story full of Judith Kerr's hallmark good cheer, this will delight readers of all ages. Julia Eccleshare, Book of the Month
Author
About Judith Kerr
Judith Kerr - 1923-2019
July 2016 Judith Kerr wins a Book Trust Lifetime Achievement Award. She received the award at London Zoo, at a ceremony hosted by former Children’s Laureate and BookTrust President, Michael Morpurgo. Judith Kerr said: "I am honoured and delighted that I have been chosen to receive the BookTrust’s Lifetime Achievement Award. I thank them very much, and as the presentation is to be at London Zoo, I’ll also be able to thank the tigers in the tiger enclosure who started it all."
Judith Kerr was born in Berlin in 1923 but escaped from Hitler’s Germany with her parents and brother in 1933 when she was nine years old. Her father was a drama critic and distinguished writer whose books were burned by the Nazis, because he dared to speak out against the regime. The day after the family left Berlin, the authorities came to arrest them, and throughout the war there was a price on her father’s head. Judith and her family passed through Switzerland and France before finally arriving in England in 1936. Judith wrote about her experiences in her classic autobiographical story, When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit.
Judith won a scholarship to the Central School of Arts in 1945, and since then has worked as an artist, television scriptwriter and, for the past thirty years, as an author and illustrator of children’s books. Judith was married to the scriptwriter Nigel Kneale, who died in 2006, most famous for the hit sciâ€fi series Quatermass. Her son is the writer Matthew Kneale who won the Whitbread Book Award for The English Passengers. Judith lives in south west London.
The Tiger Who Came to Tea was Judith’s first picture book and was published in 1968. She wrote it after telling the story at bedtime to her daughter Tracey and son Matthew. Lady Antonia Fraser was one of the first people to review the book and called it, “a dazzling first book,” that would make children “scream with delicious pleasure at the dangerous naughtiness of the notion.” The book has become a classic and appeared in the Telegraph’s list of top children’s books of all time. It has sold over 5 million copies, and celebrated its 40th Anniversary in October 2008. The Tiger Who Came to Tea was recently made into a stage play written by David Wood and produced by Nick Brooke, which has toured the UK.
'I read The Tiger Who Came to Tea when I was a child and loved it. I remember being obsessed with the bit where the tiger came and drank all the water in the tap. I think it was the domesticity of it, that this person was at home and that this could actually happen. It was so matter-of-fact. Nothing really happens but it's still somehow magical.
'Kerr keeps the text very simple, and the illustrations give you clues as to how you should read it. In her Mog books, you can look at Mog's face to see how shocked or dramatic the action is. He is just a funny cat, with a woebegone expression.'
