Title: Mr. Bunny’s Chocolate Factory
Author and illustrator: Elys Dolan
Publisher: OUP Oxford

Teacher and pupil review

The mysterious arrival of a giant egg in the classroom one morning had prompted much excitement in our class of four and five-year-olds. This was intended as a stimulus for our Amazing Eggs/New Life project, but it quickly became apparent that the Easter bunny and chocolate eggs were at the forefront of the children’s minds. This was a worrying thought to be pushed aside for a church school with an imminent Anglican schools inspection.

So it seemed the perfect opportunity to indulge in reading Mr Bunny’s Chocolate Factory, by Elys Dolan, before considering the Christian festival of Easter. As I showed the children the front cover, Ellen quickly suggested that, “It might be about Easter eggs.”

Having read the title, Angelica said: “I know! A chocolate factory is where all the chocolate is made.”

Striking chickens

What an indulgence it was. The story is about Mr Bunny, a capitalist chocolate factory owner who is only interested in getting rich. He employs chickens to make and wrap chocolate eggs - the children were completely accepting of the idea that, after the chocolate was made in the factory, the chickens had to eat it before laying chocolate eggs.

This process went on under the watchful eye of Edgar the unicorn, who held responsibility for quality control. A greedy Mr Bunny - “he only wants to get rich,” commented an astute Ralph - forces the chickens to work harder in poor conditions (not even allowing a tea break or a pre-booked holiday in the Maldives) until the chickens go on strike.

The children loved the bright and busy illustrations, making sure I read every speech bubble and sign on the pages. They kept looking and commenting on the illustrations long after I had finished reading the text, and asking me to flip back pages to look at another page where something in the cartoon-style illustrations had caught their eye.

‘Bunnies can’t lay eggs’

There is quite a lot of text in the story and, while reading speech bubbles can sometimes interrupt the flow of the story, in this instance it just added to the humour and drama unfolding inside the chocolate factory.

There were a few instances where I had to stop and explain what was happening - for example, when the chickens went on strike and were protesting outside the factory with their placards. But the children quickly understood once this was put in context, aided by a mixture of words and familiar symbols on the placards. “That picture of a bunny crossed out means they don’t like Mr Bunny,” said Fin.

The children quickly picked up on how unfair Mr Bunny was being. As Mr Bunny demanded an increase in chocolate-egg production, Fin commented: “Chickens can’t lay eggs that fast.”

Charlie noted: “They can’t eat all that chocolate: it will give them tummy ache!”

As the story climaxed, Mr Bunny tried to make the chocolate eggs on his own. Grace wisely pointed out: “I think bunnies can’t lay eggs.”

‘It reminds me of Easter’

There was lots of discussion among the children about the morality of Mr Bunny’s actions, and whether the chickens should help him when the factory explodes. Jack was adamant “Don’t help him!”

Ralph was more matter of fact: “They hate him.”

Edgar the Unicorn’s suggestion that everyone needs a second chance provided a rich opportunity to enforce our school’s positive behaviour strategy of making the right choices, which after a term-and-a-half in school seems pleasingly ingrained. Joshua summed this up, asking: “Why was Mr Bunny not listening to the chickens?”

The important moral message of this book was delivered with humour, engaging even the youngest children in school. There was much laughter at both the narrative and the pictures. “When he was eating the chocolate bunny at the end that was funny,” said Ellen.

“I liked in when they dived into the chocolate to save Debbie,“ said Henry.

“It was funny when the chicken said, ‘how am I going to lay a toy?’” laughed Ralph.

Katie summed it up: “It reminds me of Easter!” So let the Easter celebrations begin...

Jane Flood is Reception teacher at Copythorne CE Infant School, in Southampton.

If you or your class would like to write a review for Tes, please contact Adi Bloom on adi.bloom@tesglobal.com

Want to keep up with the latest education news and opinion? Follow Tes on Twitter and like Tes on Facebook