Adams, Richard

Watership Down

I have heard about this book several times from various sources, and always that it was very good, but from the title I had always assumed it would be a nautical book. I couldn't have been more wrong. It is about rabbits. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch has this to say about the book: "Everyone who can read English should read it." I might not go quite that far, but if you like adventure and are starving for some animal fun between Redwall releases, this is the book for you. Watership Down has been around awhile - it was published in 1972, and is as good now as it was then. It is not in any way dated, since rabbit technology hasn't changed much in the last thirty years, and is simply a riotously good story. I was very impressed with the depth of plot in this book - you'd think it would be hard to write a really engaging story about rabbits, but Richard Adams pulled it off admirably.

Watership Down might be a stretch for some young readers, as it is nearly 500 pages long, but it would be a great book to read aloud as a family. There are also several stories within the book that the rabbits tell one another that would be fun for even younger children. These stories are about the rabbit version of a Robin Hood-like character, a daring and adventurous rabbit who is always getting into scrapes and somehow manages to get out again, usually with a crazy and (if you'll permit the pun) hare-brained scheme that shouldn't work but does.

The main plot of the book follows a group of young rabbits who leave their home in search of a safe new place to live. They go through an incredible amount of difficulties (rivers, mad rabbits, crows and more) and finally find a new home only to realize once they are safe, that they are all bucks and really need to find some does. So off they go on a completely new venture, involving a farm where they encounter a farmer with a gun, cats, and a dog (rough night); and a rabbit warren run by a general who would make Castro proud. There is no end to the excitement in this extraordinary tale.

*Note* If you like this book, you should read The Cold Moons by Aaron Clement, for which Richard Adams wrote a praising critique. It is a similar story, following a set of badgers to a new home. I first read it several years ago and have reread it since, thoroughly enjoying it both times.