Who's In Rabbit's House?: A Masai Tale Retold

When an unknown monster calling itself "The Long One" takes over her home, Rabbit isn't sure how to get rid of him. A series of animals offer their solutions, all of which turn out to be as destructive as they are helpful, until finally Rabbit turns to Frog, whose help she refused at the beginning.

Originally published as The Long One in Aardema's 1969 collection, Tales for the Third Ear, this Masai folktale is illustrated by the marvelous Leo and Diane Dillon, who worked with Aardema on the Caldecott Medal-winning Why Mosquitos Buzz in People's Ears. The Dillons' artwork make the Masai context clear, as they present the story as a play, performed by people wearing animal masks. I understand that this format is quite appealing to young show more readers, although I found it somewhat distracting. I found myself wondering why the illustrators would choose to use masks that are not part of the Masai tradition, in order to retell a traditional Masai story. However that may be, the artwork was still gorgeous (as always), and the story engaging. show less

I enjoyed reading "Who's in Rabbit's House" for many reasons. First, I very much enjoyed the illustrations throughout the story. The pictures were very detailed and made it clear that the story was being presented as a play by the characters shown wearing masks; this is an inference one may make through the pictures and is not stated in the text. I also enjoyed that the story was of African culture and can inform the reader of their traditional tales. The big idea of the story is to help others in times of need, just as the community of animals did to help get the monster out of rabbit's house.

A rabbit is not allowed back into her house by a big bad voice it roared "I am the Long one. I eat trees and trample elephants. She sits in sadness thinking of what to do as she is approached by different animals. She is first approached by a frog who is willing to help. But she is very mean to him and tells him to leave since he is as small as her and would be useless. The frog stayed and a Jackal came along trying to help. They gathered a big pile of sticks due to the Jackals suggestion and placed them in the entrance of the house, The rabbit stopped this idea because it would only keep the big, bad voice inside. A leopard then came along and tried helping by scratching the house and bits of the roof began to fly off. The rabbit told show more the leopard to leave because it was only destroying the house. An elephant approached her and began to smash the house, but the rabbit told him to leave because he was smashing her home. A rhinoceros came by, but only made things worse. Finally the frog who had witnessed everything asked rabbit once again if she could just let him try to help. Finally she gives in and the frog scares away the big, bad voice by pretending to be a cobra. Out of the house comes a very scared caterpillar and all of the animals begin to laugh. This book teaches children a very meaningful lesson. The frog was the very first one to approach the rabbit willing to help, but she was very rude and did not even care to listen to what he had to say. Had she listened she would have went into her home much faster and would not have had to repair all the damage that was done by the other animals. This teaches children that it is important to hear everyone out. show less

I think as educators we should have books in the classroom that have a lesson at the end of the book. That is why I really enjoy folktales. I like this book for a couple reasons. First of all, it is a folk tale so it teaches kids a lesson. In this story the lesson is that we should not associate size with the ability to complete a task. In the book rabbit returns home to find there is an animal in his house with a big bad voice. Frog offers to help rabbit but, rabbit assumes frog is too small to help him. After all of the big animals fail to help him and get the creature out of his house frog comes to rabbits rescue and gets him out. I also enjoy the fact it introduces children to another culture, in this book it is Masai villagers. show more Another reason why I liked this book is because of the literary devices used. I think really effective children’s books utilize literary devices because they are well received by children. There is obvious personification. The characters in the book are animals and animals cannot talk but, they do in the book. I also like the sound words in the book like “gdung”. I also really love when there is repetition in a book. The book kept repeating “I am the long one, I eat trees and trample on elephants.” I love the vivid illustrations. I really believe that Diane and Leo specialize in folktale. I really like the mystery element in the book. It is a real page turner. I really love this book. show less

A great bedtime story sure to keep children fascinated, Who’s in Rabbit’s House is a Masai tale told from the perspective of a play within a play. A monster has invaded Rabbit’s house, and the other animals must gather to help investigate . . . and scare the monster away. This story teaches children it is important to help each other in times of need.

This Masia village based folktale teaches children that the size of a person does not determine if a task can be done by them. When an intruder is in Rabbit’s house, she calls on all her big animal friends to help scare the animal out. Frog is the smallest, and Rabbit’s last hope. Can frog scare the intruder away? Find out in the personification filled story that connects kids to the sounds, words and moral.

Summary: "Who's in Rabbit's House?" is a story about Masai villagers who dressed up with animal masks and perform a play based on a Masai Tale. In the play, Rabbit comes home to find someone in his house who has a "big, bad voice." Rabbit tries to get the animal out but the animal refuses. Frog happened to see this and tries to help but Rabbit tells her she is too small to help. Over the course of the day, many animals see Rabbit outside her house and finds out an animal will not leave Rabbit' house. Each animal tries a different tactic in order to remove the animal, however each strategy involves ruining Rabbit's house. This results in Rabbit telling each one to "go away." As these events take place, Frog is overlooking and laughing. show more After all the other animals try and fail to remove the animal, Frog offers her help again with the idea of scaring the animal out. Frog pretends to be a spitting cobra in order to scare the animal out of Rabbit's house, which works. Soon, a caterpillar comes running out of the house scared where all the other animals laugh to know the "big, bad voice" was only a caterpillar.

Review: The main idea of the story is Rabbit thought Frog was too small to remove the bad animal out of her house. However, after all the other bigger animals tried and failed to removed the bad animal, it turns out that Frog was the only one who could scared the animal out of Rabbit's house. I extremely enjoyed this book. I thought it had a great message by showing the irony of how people associating being small as not being able to get something done when Frog was the smallest animal but was the one to get the bad animal out of Rabbit's house. Additionally, I liked how the story included different sounds as actions in the book. For example, "And the frog laughed aloud - gdung, gdung, gdung." This is written to symbolize the sound the frog is making as he is laughing. I believe this is a good way to help students become more connected to the story because they can actually practice the sounds the animals are making. Also, I liked how the book had a portion of repetition throughout the story. Whenever a animal would try to talk to the bad animal inside Rabbit's house, he would say "I am Long One. I eat trees and trample on elephants. Go away! Or I will trample you!" I believe it was stated multiple times to emphasize how the bad animal constantly scared away the other animals. show less