This gentle story features a rabbit family going for a walk and having a misadventure. It’s ideal for springtime as it features blossom and flowers, a mother bird trilling to her chicks in a nest, ducklings learning to swim, some baby lambs, and of course the spring hat of the title.

Kind Mother Bunny is taking her three children out for a picnic on the riverbank. After they’ve enjoyed a meal of carrots, lettuce, bread and cheese, Mother Bunny falls asleep. But her children choose to play Frisbee with her best spring hat – and the hat falls into the river and gets swept downstream.

Naturally Mother Bunny is not best pleased with her naughty children and they are duly chastened. A sad party heads for home but fortunately all is not lost. The children’s young animal friends join forces to find a solution, and make Mother Bunny a new hat from the flowers of the woodland wayside.

There’s plenty to spot in this book for young readers, and lots to make them laugh. For instance the bird is singing her song from a sheet of music, while Mother Duck is dressed in a swimming costume and rubber hat and her ducklings wear swimming aids to help them get the hang of things.

The bunnies all have very expressive ears – bolt upright for alarm, flopping down for chagrin, and bouncing about for general happiness and fun. There are many visual details that could prompt conversations with a young child, and the layout is varied, with the pastel-coloured pictures shown in a mix of full-bleed spreads, white-bordered images, shaped ovals, and smaller vignettes. A perfect book for sharing and talking about the changes spring brings.