Thumper Finds a Friend

Making friends is easier for some than for others. Thumper, the gregarious rabbit from the Disney classic Bambi, is always eager to make new friends, but sometimes his forceful personality can be a bit overwhelming. In Thumper Finds a Friend, a picture book in the Disney Bunnies series of books for young readers, he is stymied when his friendly advances are seemingly rejected by a bashful hedgehog whose name we never learn. What could the trouble be?

My assumption is that this series, or at least this particular book, is meant to take place before Thumper takes up with the deer and skunk who will become his best friends. Both Bambi and Flower are a bit shy during their first encounters with new playmates, so I would think Thumper would be used to that quality by then. What’s more, his sisters are the only other young animals keeping Thumper company throughout the book, and I get the impression that this is typical. Being a big brother is exhausting work; no wonder he’d like a friend outside his own family.

The illustration style in this book is the same as in the Disney Bunnies board books; there’s just more room to work with here. We have the same detailed backgrounds, the same slightly pastel look, the same CGI appearance that makes the rabbits almost seem to leap off the page, with thousands of their tiny hairs standing out clearly. The team of Lori Tyminski, Maria Elena Naggi, Giorgio Vallorani and Doug Ball do an excellent job of making the rabbits and hedgehog, along with curious squirrels, chipmunks and birds lurking nearby, absolutely adorable.

The main difference between the board books and the picture books is that these are much longer. Thus, we have a lot more pictures, and there’s time to develop an actual story. Most pages still don’t have a lot of text, but the sentences are bigger. There’s also a fun bit of internal rhyme in the description of the bunnies at play: “One bunny wriggled and one bunny slid, one bunny giggled and one bunny hid…” Mostly, however, Laura Driscoll writes in sunny prose easily digestible by young readers.

The purpose of this book is to demonstrate the fact that not everyone has the same type of personality. The hedgehog in this story is a perfectly nice creature; she just is a bit slow to open up to strangers. The tale advocates not giving up on a potential friendship just because your overtures don’t seem to work at first. At the same time, it urges giving the stranger some space to come the rest of the way. Don’t take offense, and don’t overwhelm. Those are suggestions that even adults might do well to heed.

Cultivating friendships is one of the most important tasks in which people can immerse themselves. Thumper Finds a Friend will help kids to make a good start on this important venture.