In Maryrose Wood's stunning middle-grade novel, Alice's Farm, a brave young rabbit must work with her natural predators to save her farmland home and secretly help the farm’s earnest but incompetent new owners.
Everyone knows that rabbits and farmers are enemies; always have been and always will be.
But when an idealistic Brooklyn family buys a small farm in the Hudson Valley and quickly discover they’re in over their heads, it falls upon a young cottontail named Alice to save her farmland home from falling prey to the local real estate developer by teaming up with her natural predators and doing what no rabbit has ever done before — becoming a farmer herself.
Here is a stunning celebration of life, the bitter and the sweet. Alice is some rabbit―a character listeners will love for generations to come.
Praise for Alice’s Farm
★ “Wood crafts a tale of interspecies cooperation in a rural setting that is lit up with exhibitions of uncommon courage, loyalty, humor, and tolerance—not to mention extreme cuteness…Terrific.”
— BOOKLIST
“Captivating... A resonant cross-species saga of perseverance, loyalty, and magnanimous friendship.”
— PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
“Like the denizens of E.B. White’s Charlotte’s Web, these characters—animal and human, predator and prey—are lovingly observed. They are a deeply engaging, mostly endearing bunch whose natures may put them at odds but who share a world... Stoutly non-speciesist, this is an effervescent delight.”
— KIRKUS REVIEWS
“As an animal fantasy, this lies somewhere between Watership Down and The Tale of Peter Rabbit…. The storytelling is relaxed and digressive, the humor genially satiric, and the dialogue sparky.… An excellent choice for a family or classroom read-aloud.”
– THE HORN BOOK
“Tender and wonderful. It’s a fantasy, it’s real, it’s just a joy. And absolutely a book for our times.”
— Rebecca Stead, Newbery Medalist
“From the moment I started Alice’s Farm, A Rabbit’s Tale, I felt as if I were reading a classic middle-grade novel that I had somehow never heard of. The story and its memorable, richly drawn characters wrap their arms around you and hold you, with a tale of bravery, sacrifice, the ability to change, the joy of life, the reality of death, and the importance of family and friends. If you love Charlotte’s Web, you will love brave Alice’s heroic, touching, funny, and original adventure.”
— Steven Banks, author of Middle School Bites, Emmy-nominated writer of SpongeBob Squarepants
“A perfect family read-aloud. Maryrose Wood has done it again. Families will find much to love in this delightful tale about what it means to be a good neighbor, and what might happen if we looked at life from the other side of the clover patch. Highly recommended!”
— Sarah Mackenzie, author of The Read-Aloud Family, founder and host of the Read-Aloud Revival podcast