The Gift of Dark Hollow: Longburrow, Book 2

David Wyatt's illustrations often show plucky little rabbits surrounded by scary-looking Gorm, onetime normal rabbits now turned into robotic, zombie-like monsters. The Gorm, who killed Podkin's father and many others in Book 1, are still a looming threat, roaming the countryside and enslaving entire rabbit settlements. One of the characters, who wears a bone mask, belongs to an ancient order of hired assassins that serves the Goddess of Death. A rabbit priestess is held captive and tortured by the Gorm. Not all rabbits survive battles and imprisonment.

"Giant snakes be damned," says the bard. Occasional references to bottoms, as in landing on yours, and warnings to avoid food that may cause trouble on the way out.

Adult rabbits drink mead, and some, especially bards, overindulge. It's not presented as glamorous, especially when you have to sleep through the drunken singing.

Parents need to know that The Gift of Dark Hollow is the second installment of Kieran Larwood's Longburrow series, a rabbit epic apparently destined to extend far beyond its originally planned two volumes. In a tale told by the aging, mead-swilling bard who was part of it all as a baby, young Podkin One-Ear, his sibs, and a host of brave rabbits battle the robotic, zombie-like Gorm, who killed Podkin's father, imprisoned his mother, and are bent on enslaving all the rabbits. Not all characters survive the battles, imprisonments, and other dangers, and the young rabbits encounter someone who belongs to an order of assassins and has to kill something every day to survive (usually, it's a beetle). All of this may be a bit intense for some, but it's an exciting, often funny, ultimately upbeat story with plenty of positive messages about courage, family, the importance of everybody's particular talents, and overcoming your fears -- and it leaves plenty to be developed in future volumes.