I'm a hare, so there! by Julie Rowan-Zoch

  This humorous story discusses taxonomy and nomenclature in a silly way that will make kids laugh - and maybe pause and think as well.

The layout of the book is panoramic, showing a long desert scene with dialogue in speech bubbles. Saguaro cacti dot the landscape as a small rodent, perched on a cactus, greets a passing... rabbit?

"Listen up, Chipmunk, I'm a hare, so there!" proclaims the bunny, ignoring the rodent's quiet "Technically, I'm a ground squirrel." More animals and details creep into the picture as Jackrabbit goes into details, comparing sheep and goats, hares and rabbits. Of course, the hare is so concerned with their own name they have no time for the corrections of Chipmunk, ahem, Ground Squirrel, as to Tortoise vs. Turtle, or, in a hilarious climax, jackal vs. coyote.

The last page shows the ground squirrel explaining a series of sketched creatures that are "similar but not the same" like lizards and salamanders, toads and frogs, ravens and crows. The final page includes all the creatures of the Sonoran Desert pictured throughout the book, challenging readers to find them, as well as a dessert!

This is a fun read-aloud that can be paired with the fable of the Hare and the Tortoise, but there's so many more things you can do with it. Use it in a lesson about calling people by their own names, talking about how Hare is so worried about being called a hare, but consistently misnames other creatures. Use the back matter to talk about the differences in animals, or even expand it to homonyms. Then it can be an I Spy book, a supplemental title for learning about the desert, and a way to learn about how graphic novels read as it has helpfully shaded dialogue bubbles.

Verdict: This is a fun, well-illustrated, and has so many uses in and beyond storytime. Highly recommended.

ISBN: 9780358125068; Published March 2021 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; Purchased for the library