Parents' Guide to

Watership Down

By Mark Nichol, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 11+

Thinking person's bunny story will appeal to kids.

Book Richard Adams Animals 1972
Watership Down Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this book.

Community Reviews

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age 13+

Based on 6 parent reviews

Bobbynys
Bobbynys Adult
June 4, 2020
age 13+
Amazing book for teens but has rabbits being suffocated and having their ears ripped off but amazing book

This title has:

Great messages
Great role models
Too much violence
angelabovedemonbelow
angelabovedemonbelow Adult
February 10, 2014
age 14+

Don't Let the Bunnies Fool You

A younger child of, say, ten or eleven will not get a lot out of this book. While on the surface, Adams has wrote a book about adventures little bunny rabbits, there is so much more to be explored with an older eye. This is one of those novels where you have to stop and think, and more often than not, apply the situations Hazel and his band of bucks find themselves in to that of humans and what our reactions would be (in most cases, I doubt we would act any differently, honestly). The rabbits are more or less just a way to embellish the story to make it more interesting, and the rabbits' views offer an interesting point on humanity. The themes of this story are the search for home and what it takes to be a leader. Really, I'm surprised this book isn't more well known now-a-days.

This title has:

Great messages
Too much violence
See all 6 parent reviews

What's the Story?

A band of young males, relegated to the fringes of society, set out to find a place where they can live free and proud. Never mind that the characters in this long and complex but thrilling epic are rabbits--Beatrix Potter, this isn't. Charismatic characters, nail-biting action, and an engrossing plot combine to produce a classic.

When Hazel's clairvoyant brother, Fiver, predicts a catastrophe, Hazel gathers other young rabbits willing to flee to establish a new warren of their own. But few of them have been far from home, and their journey is perilous: They're attacked by rats in a barn, must cross a creek, and are lulled into a false sense of security in a warren whose rabbits turn out to be fed--and harvested--by a farmer.

With every incident, however, the value of each individual becomes clear to the others, and they coalesce into a unified band. When they at last reach their objective, a desolate hill called Watership Down, they feel they have found, and earned, a home.

But then their search for mates to help populate their warren leads to an encounter with a repressive rabbit society, and a gripping undercover plot that culminates in a harrowing stand against the ferocious dictator, General Woundwort.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (6):
Kids say (35):

WATERSHIP DOWN was written for adults, but adolescents often find it more irresistible than their elders do. Although the rabbit characters have a language and a culture, and they converse and interact just as humans do, these are not cap-and-waistcoat picture-book bunnies, but fully realized characters whose conflicts and triumphs keep readers engrossed.

This is primarily an adventure novel, but one for thinking people. Readers are expected to engage their brains, even for the suspenseful action sequences. Social allegory pops up regularly, from the restlessness of the warren's disenfranchised younger bucks to the fatalism and repression in two other rabbit communities, whose members have given up freedom for an illusion of security. Author Richard Adams also conveys a palpable love of nature. He knows the story's countryside setting intimately, and much of his narrative contains descriptions of the landscape and references to specific plant species.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about why this novel, which was intended for adults, was peopled with the unlikiest of main characters -- rabbits.

  • When humans do pop up in the story, what is their role?

  • In what ways
    can this seemingly straightforward "bunny story" be seen as an allegory
    for the perils of human civilization?

Book Details

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