''Rabbit Hill'' is a children's novel by Robert Lawson that won the

Newbery Medal The John Newbery Medal, frequently shortened to the Newbery, is a literary award given by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), to the author of "the most distinguished contr ...

for excellence in American

children's literature Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. In addition to conventional literary genres, modern children's literature is classified by the intended age of the reade ...

in 1945. In 1954 he wrote a sequel, ''The Tough Winter''.

Plot introduction

The story takes place in the countryside near

Westport, Connecticut Westport is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. Located in the Gold Coast (Connecticut), Gold Coast along the Long Island Sound, it is northeast of New York City and is part of the Western Connecticut Planning Region, Connec ...

. The animal inhabitants are suffering as the house nearby has been abandoned for several years and the untended garden, the animals' source of food, has withered to nothing. "New Folks" then move into the house: Are they hunters, or friendly gardeners who will provide for the animals?

Literary significance and criticism

The book was written at the end of World War II when racial integration and providing aid to the war-torn countries of Europe were on everyone's minds. The moral intent becomes clear when reading the story with those in mind. Suspicion, fear, and hate—personified in the elderly rabbit Uncle Analdas, and led by him when Georgie was injured and taken into the House—leads to the ravaging of the House's garden and grounds by his family and their friends. In a short while, Georgie is released—healed—and can tell and show his family and friends that the New People have no intention of hurting them, and have made a place where they may all always find food and water, overseen by a statue of Saint Francis and the inscription "There Is Enough For All". Printings of the book beginning in the 1970s and continuing today have edited the character Sulphronia, the new occupants' cook. This was done because she was originally depicted as an

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

stereotype In social psychology, a stereotype is a generalization, generalized belief about a particular category of people. It is an expectation that people might have about every person of a particular group. The type of expectation can vary; it can ...

.Peterson, Linda Kauffman; and Marilyn Leathers Solt. ''Newbery and Caldecott Medal and Honor Books, an Annotated Bibliography'', G.K. Hall & Co., 1982.

Film and television

''Little Georgie of Rabbit Hill'' was a 1967 television adaptation for '' NBC Children's Theatre''.

References

1944 American novels 1944 children's books American children's novels American novels adapted into television shows Children's books set in Connecticut Children's novels about rabbits and hares Newbery Medal–winning works Novels set in Connecticut Viking Press books Westport, Connecticut {{1940s-child-novel-stub