Rabbit Rabbit by Dori Hillestad Butler & Sunshine Bacon

To rebuild their broken family, a pair of audacious tween cousins must confront the long-buried secrets that destroyed it in this upper middle grade novel told from dual perspectives.

Twelve-year-olds Alice and Bee are practically strangers when their grandparents’ anniversary party reunites their estranged families and ignites their own fast friendship.

But their reunion doesn’t last long—Bee’s mother and grandfather are dead set on keeping the liberal Seattle faction of the family away from the conservative Minnesota crew. “It’s complicated,” the grown ups tell them over and over (and over!) again.

Bee and Alice grow closer despite their geographical distance, determined to keep their friendship going—and to uncover the big family secret. What happened all those years ago, and why did it tear their family apart?

Just when they've started to make progress, the COVID pandemic strikes. Bee and Alice watch as the world shuts down and their loved ones grow further divided along their fractured lines. Somehow, it’s up to the twelve-year-olds to clean up the mess that the grown ups have made.

This powerful, timely story cuts deep, touching on recent historic events and intimate family details alike. With an age-appropriate approach, Rabbit Rabbit tackles religion, sexuality, bodily autonomy, and other juicy stuff you're not supposed to talk about at Thanksgiving.

Readers will fall headfirst for Alice and Bee as the unforgettable tweens make space for their friendship and shifting identities while standing up to their far-from-perfect family, with all the love and grace they can muster.

Kindle Edition, 336 pages

Expected publication April 15, 2025

 by Holiday House

3/5 stars

This book had such an interesting premise, two cousins that set out to discover what fractured their family. Why their mothers don’t talk therefore separating these two.

It’s been seven years since Alice and Bethany have seen each other. Now they are reunited at their grandparents 50th wedding anniversary celebration. And though this reunion started off great, the past comes back to haunt them and the reunion is short-lived.

Rabbit, Rabbit (weird title I know,  but you need to read the book for its reasons) is a story with many layers, in fact, all those layers distracted from the ultimate goal, which was to uncover what happened seven years ago. There is the pandemic, lockdown, which shuts so many aspects of the world down but still these two managed to secretly communicate.

But it isn’t always about the original goal of uncovering what happened. I found myself distracted from the ultimate goal and with the many other things going on.  And then when it was finally revealed what happened it was underwhelming and turned into just an okay read for me. While I enjoyed getting to know Alice and Bee be I found other members of the family not that authentic and the grandfather just way too much. Being 335 pages long might seem daunting but it did go by fast.

My thanks to Holiday House for a digital arc in exchange for a honest review.