Title Watership Down Author Richard Adams Cover Art Pauline Baynes Publisher Penguin - 1975 First Printing 1972
	Title Tales From Watership Down Author Richard Adams Cover Art Arthur Fitzwillian Tait Publisher Vintage Books - 1996 First Printing Vintage Books - 1996
	Title The Watership Down Film Picture Book Author Richard Adams Cover Art Publisher Macmillan Publishers - 1978 First Printing Macmillan Publishers - 1978
	Title Watership Down: The Graphic Novel Author Richard Adams Illustrator Joe Sutphin Publisher Ten Speed Graphic - 2023 First Printing Ten Speed Graphic - 2023
	Title Pipkin's Rainbow Author Dianne Redmond Illustrator Country Studio Publisher Red Fox - 2000 First Printing Red Fox - 2000
	Title Count with Fiver Author Dianne Redmond Illustrator Country Studio Publisher Red Fox - 2000 First Printing Red Fox - 2000
	Title Pipkin Makes a Friend Author Dianne Redmond Illustrator Country Studio Publisher Red Fox - 2000 First Printing Red Fox - 2000
	Title Fiver's Dream Author Dianne Redmond Illustrator Country Studio Publisher Red Fox - 2000 First Printing Red Fox - 2000
	Title Bigwig Learns a Lesson Author Dianne Redmond Illustrator Country Studio Publisher Red Fox - 1999 First Printing Red Fox - 1999
	Title Hazel the Brave Author Dianne Redmond Illustrator Country Studio Publisher Red Fox - 1999 First Printing Red Fox - 1999
	Title Primrose's Great Escape Author Dianne Redmond Illustrator Country Studio Publisher Red Fox - 2000 First Printing Red Fox - 2000
	Title Hazel Raids the Farm Author Dianne Redmond Illustrator Country Studio Publisher Red Fox - 2000 First Printing Red Fox - 2000
	Title Fiver's Bad Luck Author Dianne Redmond Illustrator Country Studio Publisher Red Fox - 2000 First Printing Red Fox - 2000
	Title Hawkbit's Discovery Author Dianne Redmond Illustrator Country Studio Publisher Red Fox - 2000 First Printing Red Fox - 2000
	Title Campion and the Slither-thing Author Dianne Redmond Cover Art --- Publisher --- First Printing ---
	Title The Winter Adventure Author Dianne Redmond Cover Art --- Publisher --- First Printing ---
	Title Watership Down Treasury Author Dianne Redmond Cover Art --- Publisher --- First Printing ---
	Title Escape to the Hills Author Judy Allen Illustrator Country Studio Publisher Red Fox - 1999 First Printing Red Fox - 1999
	Title Friend and Foe Author Judy Allen Illustrator Country Studio Publisher Red Fox - 2000 First Printing Red Fox - 2000
	Category Anthropomorphic Warnings None Main Characters Hazel, Fiver, Bigwig, Blackberry, Silver, Dandelion, Pipkin, Acorn, Speedwell, Holly, Blueberry, Strawberry, Hyzenthlay, Blackavar, General Woundwort, Campion, Keehar Main Elements Anthropomorphism Website ---

Watership Down

Tales From Watership Down

The Watership Down Picture Book

Watership Down: The Graphic Novel

Pipkin's Rainbow

Counting with Fiver

Pipkin Makes a Friend

Fiver's Dream

Bigwig Learns a Lesson

Hazel the Brave

Primrose's Great Escape

Hazel Raids the Farm

Fiver's Bad Luck

Hawkbit's Discovery

Escape to the Hills

Friend and Foe

It is very strange writing this. For whatever reason, I decided to reread Watership Down this year. And then, I followed it up with a first time read of Tales from Watership Down. The day after I finished reading it, I found out that Richard Adams passed away.

How does one go about writing a review for a classic like Watership Down. A beautiful, magical tale of a group of rabbits and their adventures as they seek out a new home. They must deal with men, elil (predators), and even other rabbits. Each rabbits has his own strenghts and weaknesses that he lends to the group. Fiver, which his unusual ability to sense the future, the one who knew they must leave their old warren before it is destroyed. Hazel, their unflappable leader. Bigwig, strong and loyal. Blackberry, smart and ingenious. And of course all the others. In fact those of you familiar more with the movie, there are a few more rabbits than you will recognize, such as Acorn and Speedwell.

There are many things the same with the movie, but some significant differences as well, it is too long a book to fit into a single movie. You will hear many more stories of El-ahrairah, the legendary first rabbit and favorite (and pain in the backside) of Lord Firth, their sun god. But both expose us to rabbit culture and even language, which become second nature to the reader very quickly. Words like Elil (predators), Hrududu (cars, tractors), Hrair (more than four, four being the highest number a rabbit can count). Hrair reminded me of how well Adams convinces the readers that these are in fact rabbits, they don't think or act like humans.

It is truly a classic and for anyone who is a fan of fantasy, a must read. Once might dismiss it as simply a children's book but it is anything but. In fact, as I watch the movie now I wonder how my parents let me watch it, what with rabbits ripping each other to piece, blood and froth spraying everywhere, death at every corner.

Tales of Watership Down wasn't quite what I was hoping for. The first two thirds comprised rabbit stories and legends, which are fun but I was hoping for more of what happened to Hazel and the others after they settled Watership Down, which was only in the last third. But still, it was a treat to be able to have just that little bit more. A couple of the stories also kind of hit you over the head with the how evil humans are, blindly killing rabbits, though in other stories the rabbits point out if they destroy human livelihood of course they should expect retaliation. But overhall, I enjoyed it. After all it was nearly 20 years after the book was first published before Adams returned to Watership.

I don't know where I got the film picture book from, must have inherited it from my older brother. It contains stills of the movie with text to go with each one. It's a nice addition to the collection...and as I researched for this review, I discovered there was a Watership Down TV series!

My heart has joined the thousand, for my friend stopped running today.
Be cunning, and full of tricks, and your people will never be destroyed
Richard Adams may run no more but Hazel and the others shall continue.

May 2024

I knew the was a Pipkin's Rainbow book, but didn't think I'd ever find it anywhere, then one day I stumbled across it on OpenLibrary! It's a book for very young children, even before they become readers themselves, teaching about colours. On the left the entire page is a certain colour, on the right you see Pipkin hopping around finding red apples or green grass and blue skies. It was too young a target audience for me to feel much interest in the book, and since the rabbits look like the ones from the movies, how did they get Fiver totally wrong??? He looked more like Blackberry with the dark face. Hazel too. Anyway, its a book about colours, not a story about Pipkin so if you're a big Watership Down fan, you won't miss much by not adding this to your collection.

And then I thought...what if I just search "Watership Down" and see what OpenLibrary finds...and I discover Escape to the Hills. And from that blurb I discover the books are not tie-ins with the movie but with the TV series, so that explains the different art for Fiver. And Blackberry? He's now a doe! Unlike Pipkin's Rainbow this is a story book, for early readers with B&W illustrations. It's clearly inspired by the original novel but I suppose to make it into a TV series they needed to change things around and add more to it so its at once familiar and different. And searching a bit more, I found there's a whole bunch of these books!

Going through the ones by Diane Redmond, it was a bit like watching the TV series I feel, though I didn't get them all in the right order. The illustrations were nice but I guess they were stills from the show since the illustrations are credited to the production company.

July 2024

On the other hand, the graphic novel is faithful to the book. When I put it on reserve at the library I didn't expect something so huge and detailed. And the artwork is simply divine, looks like watercolours with pencil, so beautiful I find myself sometimes not reading the text but just staring at the page. I highly recommend the graphic novel.