Rating: 
Summary: Always Be My Baby...
Review: All children want to run away from everything every once in a while, right? Well thats just what the baby bunny in this cute story does. He tells his mother about the ways he will run away and she, in turn, says what she will do to be with him.
The repetative text is just what classics are made of. Thank you Mrs. Brown for writting this book!
Rating:
Summary: A mother's love
Review: An endearing book about a little bunny that wants to run away, and the mother bunny who wants to run after him, "for you are my little bunny". A sweet tale of a mother's love and a bunny's imagination. When the bunny imagines he becomes a fish to swim away from her, she imagines she will become a fisherman and fish for him. Each idea the bunny comes up with, the mother knows what to become to make sure she gets her bunny back! The story has both black and white illustrations (where the bunnies are talking) and then a 2 page color illustration with each instance of mother getting her bunny in their imagination, such as a delightful picture of Mother bunny in a river with fishing boots; holding a line with a carrot on it to catch little bunny.
This is a wonderful, loving book to read to your child(ren).
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Summary: Great Children's Book
Review: First published almost sixty years ago and never out of print since, this book is the heartwarming story of a young bunny that wishes to run away and the mother who loves him so much that she'll follow him to the ends of the Earth. Throughout the course of the book, the "runaway bunny" and his protective mother engage in a make-believe game of chase. It's a comforting tale of a mother's love for her child and the length in which she'll go to make sure that he stays out of harm's way.This book was a joy to read. The storyline is simple enough to keep a young child's interest but thought provoking enough to inspire discussion afterwards. The book's illustrations are vivid enough to add meaning to the tale but simple enough not to draw attention away from the story. All in all, I can see why this story has remained so popular over the years. It has everything you could ever want in a book aimed at preschool and kindergarten age children.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful childhood book
Review: I am expecting my first child in 5 months and was pleased to find that my mother had saved the copy from when my sister and I were young. I love the beautiful illustrations and the idea that no matter where your children go in life, you will always be there and always be their mother. I am looking forward to sharing this story with my own little one.
Rating: 
Summary: Times change
Review: I read this book to my daughter at least twice a day. As a fly fisherman and mountain climber who gardens, I like the illustrations. But the message is plainly mawkish and based on values that don't work today.
As a dad and primary caregiver, I'm tired of Brown's world in which only boys matter and only mothers are around. And mocking a child's ambition cheats that child and innures it to arbitrary authority. You don't have to belittle a child to demonstrate your unending love and fortitude.
As an adult I appreciate the wit and quirkiness of the story, so I have no problems mixing the genders when I read it aloud. But the book's going out with the trash when my daughter is old enough to comprehend and read for herself.
Rating:
Summary: I love this
Review: I think those who view this book as a treatise on a mother's smothering love are reading it waaaay too literally--and bringing their own "stuff" to the book.
I agree with those who pointed out that this book is written for young children (3-8) who are testing their wings and balancing a wish to escape from mommy with a healthy, emerging need to separate.
I hadn't read this to my 6 y.o. since she was three and pulled it out one night when she was VERY angry with me (I had the audacity to insist she go to bed;-)). I've always told her it's okay (and expected) that she will be angry with mommy from time to time, but that we could be angry and still love one another. As she lay in the bed with her angry, little back turned to me, I began to read. She slowly turned over and began to inch closer to me until she was snuggled next to me. It has become her favorite book and she insists on it at least five nights a week.
I think the book simply makes her feel safe. She LOVES the end when the bunny says "shucks" and the mother bunny gives him a carrot. I love that the book makes her feel loved and safe.
Rating: 
Summary: no more wire hangers!
Review: many of the positive reviews for this book speak of reading it as a child, but let's remember that "nostalgia" means home sickness-again, homesickness--an aptly ironic phrase for "runaway bunny." this is one creepy book. i stopped reading it to my daughter (then about 2 years old) after three readings in a row of her shaking her head and moaning "nuh-uh" when the little boy bunny walks into a house wearing shorts. i'm not sure what upset her about that, to be honest, but she was sincere about it. new rule in our house: no more bunnies wearing shorts in houses while fleeing their deadpan, smothering mommies, or at least not until george a. romero has a go at a movie version. all the enthusiasm slathered on "runaway bunny" and its alleged message of parental love just outright skips the page where the loving, protective mother catches her son with a fishhook and net. a hook! is that a metaphor? "i love you like a fisherman casting for trout"? i mean really, a fishhook!
i agree with the other low raters that the mother is just plain unhealthy, denying her kid even the daydream of room and then pursuing him--in his own reveries, no less--with eerie, inventive determination. so what if she becomes wind and rocks and trees? those are lovely things in themselves, but when your mom becomes one to foil even your imagined liberty, she starts looking like those paintings in bad horror movies where the eyes in the portrait move. this is the sort of weird surveillance that makes the wicked witch wicked. also, the tree they live in looks like a heap of intestines, and though this book isn't as insipid as "goodnight moon," it is to such a heap that i would return it. i agree that "guess how much i love you" is a superior book about the same topic, and it doesn't turn love into a hopeless footrace against intrusive parental phatasms. anyway, in a couple weeks the "runaway bunny" lobby will have voted this this review into the "least helpful" pile, but (as many other reviewing parents have already attested) it will still express widely held views.
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Summary: Love this book!
Review: My girls ages 2 and 4 love this book. It is sending the message that a mother/father/loved one will always be there for them.
Rating:
Summary: Not beloved by our family
Review: Our young son never asks to have this one read to him. He is completely uninterested in the illustrations (both the color and the black and white ones) and the story always fails to hold his imagination. My husband and I find the story line of a controlling mother slightly disturbing (although in fairness, our son does not seem to pick up on that). If you are looking for a book from this author, I would suggest "Goodnight Moon" instead.
Rating:
Summary: Runaway Bunny
Review: This book is wonderful. My son is in an accelerated reading program at school, he brought this book home last night to read and we had such a great time with it. When the story starts off with the little bunny telling his mom that he'll run away and she says she'll follow him I just thought . . . that is love. I told my son that he was the little bunny and I was the mommy bunny, so throughout the story we pretended that those characters were us. The look on my son's face was priceless, I could tell that he knew that his mommy loves him dearly (children need reassurance). He was so proud to hear that I would follow him like that. The color illustrations kept us laughing. They were just so sweet and cute. This book is a classic. I would recommend it to any parent. I didn't see it as a way a mother holds a child back from adventuring out, but as a way a mother/father can deal with a little child wanting to runaway. My son has told me a time or two that he was going to runaway (I believe all kids do - I can remember telling my mom) next time he tells me that I'll just remind him of this story and that I am a mommy bunny! Call me crazy, but I'm assuming that God has read this book as well. After all He keeps running after each and every one of us. Children of all ages need to know that.
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