Lapin Plays Possum

Sharon Arms Doucet's Lapin Plays Possum is a book of trickster tales for 6 year olds about a very small rabbit who simply can't resist a trick.

What happens

Compère Lapin lives down by the Louisiana bayous. He's knee-high to a blackberry bush and he'll do almost anything to get out of work. His neighbour Compère Bouki is big, grumpy and not much good at sums.

You can probably guess who comes off worse!

There are four linked stories. In the first, Lapin agrees to help pick Bouki's cotton in return for half the crop (Bouki thinks a half is smaller than a third). Then Lapin keeps sneaking off to pretend baptisms, and each time he comes back he's eaten a bit more of Bouki's cake and butter.

Next, Bouki rents Lapin a field and tries to win the deal. Tops, bottoms, middles. Lapin wins every single time. Then Lapin lies down in the road pretending to be dead, so he can pinch Bouki's gumbo. That's where the title comes from.

It's a book that begs to be read aloud. The storyteller's voice is packed with Southern sayings, like working "slower than a slug on Sunday", and French words are sprinkled all through. A glossary at the front helps with how to say them.

Little ones will love spotting the trick before Bouki does. Who's going to fall for it this time? (Bouki, always.) And there's something very satisfying about the smallest character outsmarting the biggest.

A couple of things are good to know first. It's a rough and tumble world. Bouki threatens to hang Lapin, barbecue him or drown him in the well. It's played for laughs, but a child who takes threats to heart might need a hand to hold. In the last story Bouki makes a sticky figure out of tar to trap him, and calls it Little Tar Baby. That name has been used as an insult since, so you might want to be ready to talk about it. A short note at the end explains that these tales travelled from West Africa to Louisiana a long time ago, and that Lapin has a famous cousin called Brer Rabbit.

What to read next

If they love a small animal running rings round bigger, meaner neighbours, Fantastic Mr Fox is in the library too. Three nasty farmers are out to get Mr Fox for helping himself to their chickens, ducks and turkeys.