How To Be Invisible (Bunny and Bird, #2)

By Nick Bland

Reviewed by Mia Macrossan

Nick is a very popular creator of picture books including The Very Cranky Bear series, The Runaway Hug and The Wrong Book. How To Be Invisible is the second in the delightful Bunny and Bird series and it is just as gloriously offbeat funny as the first in the series, How To Hatch a Dragon. I love this story because it celebrates fun and friendship in a lighthearted and joyful way.

When Bunny arrives at the park wearing Grandpa’s hat, he thinks it has made him invisible. But Bird can still see him. The more Bunny tries, the less invisible he seems. At one point Bird feels compelled to ask ‘Are you sure you know what invisible means? The best friends enjoy playing with the hat which as far as they can see is just a hat, but is there something special about it? Because when Grandpa arrives, who is wearing a hat that makes him invisible,  he tells Bunny that he brought the wrong hat. Bunny’s hat does something totally different which has been evident on every page if you were looking carefully. Read it and find out what Bunny’s hat really does.

Clever art shows the full range of Bunny’s expressions as he tries and fails to be invisible and he manages to give  Bird plenty of personality in their interactions. The action takes place in the open  where there is lots of sky and  green fields with flowers, which provide plenty of contrast for Bunny’s red hat and Bird is always a solid black presence.

Nick subtly makes the point that you can have fun together and be friends even if you are as different as a rabbit and a bird. Everyone accepts each other’s idiosyncrasies without comment or question. This means that the story is never weighed down but always zings along to its very satisfying conclusion which, by the way, is a very neat way to encourage a child to read the book all over again, something reinforced by the endpapers.

Recommended for all school and home libraries that cater for children aged 3+

HarperCollins 2024

Nick Bland