Creepy Carrots!

Jasper Rabbit loves to pick the carrots in Crackenhopper Field, but what happens when the carrots decide they don't want to be picked?

What a great, slightly spooky, but also funny picture book! Peter Brown's illustrations are what make the book so great - framed in black so they look like an old-time horror movie with the only colors being black, white and shades of grey - except for the shocking spots of orange. The way Brown uses perspective, lighting and color to set the tone and mood is just terrific.

I love some of the details - things like of course Jasper just happens to have a backhoe and the alligators towards the end. This would be great for kids who like the Bunnicula series or for those looking for a spooky story that isn't show more actually about Halloween. show less

Jasper Rabbit loved carrots, especially those growing in Crackenhopper Field. But when they followed him home one evening, Jasper suddenly began to see Creepy Carrots everywhere. Despite his parents' assurances that there were no sinister root vegetables lurking in the vicinity, Jasper knew that they were out there, and he decided to take measures to protect himself. Little did he suspect the role he was playing in his vegetable foes' plan...

Awarded a Caldecott Honor in 2013, Creepy Carrots is an amusing tale, one sure to please young children who want stories that are a little bit scary and quite a bit funny. I enjoyed the surprise ending, in which it is revealed that the carrots are deliberately frightening Jasper, in order to get him show more to stop eating them, but I do wonder a bit at the wisdom of convincing children that it's a bad idea to eat their vegetables. Don't we already have enough of a problem with that? Leaving that qualm aside, this was an entertaining tale, one made all the better by Peter Brown's spooky pencil illustrations, which capture both the frights and the fun of the story. Recommended to anyone looking for lighter Halloween fare for younger children. show less

I loved this book for a few reasons. Firstly, I loved the illustrations within this book. On every page, mostly everything is in black and white. However, anytime a carrot is in the illustration or something that Jasper Rabbit thinks is a carrot, it is bright orange. This highlights the carrots as the focal point of the story. It also shows how much Jasper Rabbit loves carrots as well as becomes scared of them later. Jasper Rabbit is a talking rabbit that pulls carrots out of the ground and devours them multiple times of the day. The carrots that Jasper loved then come to life and follow him around like zombies. Jasper Rabbit becomes so scared that he ends up building a fence around the carrots and stops eating them. In the beginning of show more the book, the carrots are drawn very small and seem insignificant. However, once Jasper Rabbit becomes scared of the carrots, the carrots are drawn larger than Jasper Rabbit and look menacing. This was purposely done to show the differences in Jasper Rabbit's perspective. The illustrations really stood out to me, and were different from illustrations I have seen before. I believe it really enhances the story.
Another reason I love this book is that as a reader, you are left guessing as to if the creepy carrots were actually real or if they were just a part of Jasper Rabbit’s imagination. Once Jasper Rabbit begins to fear the carrots, they are huge and look like zombies. But when Jasper has an adult look, they are just everyday objects. This leads the reader to believe that the carrots were never haunting Jasper, and that he just made it up. However, at the end the carrots throw a party and are ecstatic that Jasper built a fence around them. The carrots say that their plan worked so Jasper wouldn’t eat them anymore. This makes it seem like the carrots were alive and truly were haunting Jasper. However, this could still be Jasper’s imagination as he might imagine that is how the carrots would have felt when they were alive. This mystery in the book thoroughly intrigued me and I have now read it more than once. The choice the author made to do this made the book even better.
The main idea of this story is that one shouldn’t let their imagination get the best of them. Jasper Rabbit may have imagined all of this to happen, and it influenced him greatly. If he would have moved on or stopped thinking about the creepy carrots, he would have gone about his life normally. He wouldn’t have had to stop eating carrots or be in fear almost every second of every day. show less

Creepy Carrots by Aaron Reynolds is a delightful tale about a rabbit named Jasper who loves carrots specifically ones from Crackenhopper Field but suddenly he begins to feel these carrots are stalking him. I loved this book! It is such a good book that engages the reader. I loved this book mainly because of the illustrations. The illustrations really helped to move the story along, added to the humor and overall feel of the story. The illustrations were all black and white expect for the “creepy” carrots. This made the carrots that much more creepy and almost made it look like an old scary movie or film. Peter Brown, the illustrator said he even used old scary movies and old horror shows to add to the story. An example of this is show more seen when Jasper feels the carrots are stalking him when he is brushing his teeth at night. The picture is all black and white and in the background the carrots are the only colorful objects on the page and they are just staring back at Jasper in the mirror. This I feel is a great example of how the illustrations added to the feel of the book. Through this illustration the reader, really can feel how frightened Jasper is. Also, when turning the page and seeing that the reader feels the scare of seeing those carrots in the mirror as well. These illustrations really did a great job of adding life to the book and in my opinion a main reason why it is such a good book. A final thing that I liked about the book was the overall story. The story line and book was so adorable and well thought out. An example of this is seen when Jasper finally decides to ends the stalking and builds a fence around Crackenhopper field. The story really comes full circle when you realize that the carrots were stalking him and they did it so he wouldn’t eat them anymore. I thought this was an adorable story line and one that came with a great message, which is to not steal/touch things that aren’t yours. It also is such a unique story line that I feel it just adds to the story and makes it that much more engaging. show less

Creepy Carrots by Aaron Reynolds is an adorably illustrated book about Jasper Rabbit who loves to steal carrots from Crackenhopper Field. He eats them every time he goes by them- on they way to school, on the way to little league practice, and on the way home at night. One night, he hears movement in the field, but there was nothing there. That night, he imagines that the carrots are following him. He keeps seeing them- EVERYWHERE. They haunt him with their terrible, carroty breathing and their creepy carrot shadows. Jasper can’t get anyone else to believe him about the creepy carrots, so he comes up with a plan to stop them from following him. The reveal at the end of the book is fantastic! This is a great book for young readers to show more allow them to experience a tiny bit of fear, but also for them to feel safe. Carrots are pretty innocuous, right? Or are they… show less

Creepy Carrots! by Aaron Reynolds is a creepy, yet funny book for the Halloween season. It follows a young bunny who always decides to eat fat, juicy carrots from this one carrot field. He starts to notice that something or someone is following him and he realizes it's the carrots. He starts to panic and starts to see them everywhere, this leads to him having nightmares and becoming terrified. Convinced that they want to hurt him, he decides to build a fence around the field so the carrots can't leave that area. Unknowingly to him, the carrots are celebrating that their plan to scare him worked and he won't eat them anymore! This book was a creepy thriller and it was made scarier by the illustrator only adding 4 colors to the pictures, show more which were black, grey, white, and orange. Anytime the bunny thought he saw a carrot it would turn out to be another item- but it would be orange just like a carrot. Considering everything else in the story was black, grey, or white this strike of color instantly drew attention from the reader's eyes. The reader really was left wondering (until the end, of course!) if the carrots were really terrorizing the bunny or if the bunny was just seeing things in his head because he was paranoid. I also loved that this story was only told from the bunny's point of view! This allowed suspense to be built because the reader didn't know what the carrots were or weren't doing. For instance, the reader doesn't find out until the end that the carrots were only terrorizing the bunny so he wouldn't eat them anymore! Until that moment the reader is left wondering what the carrots' motives are. This tactic employed by the author allowed the reader to only see one side of the story until the very end, where the reader finds out the truth! This book also offered a great message to the reader that everyone has fears, and even though some fears might seem stupid or unrealistic to some people, they are very real and scary for the person who has the fear. It's important, as humans, that we don't disregard fears but that we overcome them over time! show less

The colors on the cover drew me in too and I wanted to know how carrots could be creepy.

Jasper Rabbit loves carrots, and he can’t resist them. Every time he walks by Crackenhopper Field he must crunch a few tasty treats. But then he starts to worry that his favorite food is following him. Can the carrots be after him? Jasper thinks so, and he knows he has to do something to protect himself!

The story is the perfect blend of a little spooky and a little funny. I cracked up at the end and loved the faces on the carrots. Creepy Carrots is a wonderful book to read near Halloween because of the colors in the illustrations- but the book can be read any time of year, because it doesn’t actually tie into the holiday.