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    The Royal Rabbits
    The Royal Rabbits
    The Royal Rabbits
    Ebook134 pages1 hour

    The Royal Rabbits

    By Santa Montefiore, Simon Sebag Montefiore and Kate Hindley

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    The perfect Easter gift for readers age 7+!

    The adventure begins for brave little Shylo and his Royal Rabbit friends in this charming series from bestselling authors Santa Montefiore and Simon Sebag Montefiore and illustrator Kate Hindley, that proves even the smallest rabbit can be the biggest hero. 

    Life is an adventure. Anything in the world is possible – by will and by luck, with a moist carrot, a wet noise and a slice of mad courage!

    Shylo has always been the runt of the litter, the weakest and quietest of all of his family. His siblings spend their days making fun of him for not being like the rest of them. But when Shylo stumbles across a band of ratzis and overhears their evil plan to take a photo of the Queen in her nightie, it's up to this unlikely hero to travel to London and inform the Royal Rabbits of London about the diabolical plot! 

    The Royal Rabbits have a proud history of protecting the royal family and now the secret society need to leap into action to stop the ratzis... But can a rabbit as feeble and shy as Shylo convince them that Queen is in danger?

    Praise for The Royal Rabbits:
    ‘Packed with fun, fantasy and the sort of adventure guaranteed to have sticky little fingers hungrily turning the pages’ The Mail on Sunday
    ‘The Royal Rabbits is sweet, funny and beautifully illustrated' The Times
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster UK
    Release dateOct 6, 2016
    ISBN9781471157875
    The Royal Rabbits
    Author

    Santa Montefiore

    Santa Montefiore is a Sunday Times (London) bestselling author. Her books have been translated into more than twenty-five languages and have sold more than six million copies in England and Europe. She is the bestselling author of The Temptation of Gracie and the Deverill series, among many others. She is married to writer Simon Sebag Montefiore. They live with their two children, Lily and Sasha, in London. Visit her at SantaMontefiore.co.uk and connect with her on X @SantaMontefiore or on Instagram @SantaMontefioreOfficial. 

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    Reviews for The Royal Rabbits

    3.5/5

    27 ratings5 reviews

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    • 3/5
      Advertised as suitable for 8-12yo, but it's going to be the younger side of that age range that will like this one, and I don't think adults readers of MR books will particularly care for it. I like rabbits (and I like rats too, though too often, as in this book, rats unfortunately are villainous), which is why I bought this one. It's really just too simplistic, though, and I don't plan to bother with subsequent installments to the series.
    • 1/5
      If you've come here hoping for your next read of the summer then I'm afraid I have to disappoint you (unless this sounds up your street for some reason). The Royal Rabbits of London by Santa Montefiore & Simon Sebag Montefiore caught my eye because of the fantastic cover illustration of rabbits in various outfits. This is the story of Shylo, an extremely small bunny that is ridiculed and bullied by his peers (and siblings). He gets roped into a bit of intrigue and derring-do which takes him away from all that he has ever known and into the very heart of the Royal Rabbits of London. Much shenanigans ensue especially when they are confronted by Ratzis. I feel like this book was given very little thought or care (except for the illustrations which were really great and liberally padded the story) so it shocked me to learn that this is the first in a series. (Spoiler alert: I won't be reading the others.) It wasn't particularly well-written but would probably appeal to 2nd or 3rd graders who really like rabbits. For me, it was disappointing to say the least. 1/10 only because of those excellent drawings.
    • 3/5
      This light book about rabbits who work to protect the Queen of England may work well for advanced readers. While the subject matter should amuse a 2nd or 3rd grader, the length of the book and language is a bit older.
    • 5/5
      I love books about animals. Remember the All Creatures Great and Small series by James Herriot that came began in 1973? If you haven’t read them, do so. They are wonderful. I also love rabbits, so how could I pass up a chance to read a book about a little rabbit that has to wear an eyepatch to help correct his vision?I couldn’t, and I’m glad that I didn’t. This novel, aimed at middle school readers, is adorable and a fun read, even for middle-aged adults.In this first book in the Royal Rabbits series, readers are introduced to Shylo Tawny-Tail, the runt of his litter and Mom’s pet. Shylo has made friends with an elderly rabbit who lives on the other side of the pasture. Horatio, the old rabbit, tells Shylo about the Royal Rabbits, the noble defenders of the royal family, a secret society of rabbits that live beneath Buckingham Palace.On his way to visit Horatio, Shylo encounters his oldest brother, Maximilian. Rather the divulge his secret path, Shylo takes off in a different direction and looks for a low place to hide. He is successful and Maximilian soon tires of chasing him. As he waits to make sure that his brother has truly left, three Ratzis, under the control of Papa Ratzi, amble up the path, making plans to snap photos of the Queen in her nightie and selling it to the tabloids for big bucks.When Shylo finally makes it to Horatio’s burrow and explains what he has just heard…and smelled, Horatio convinces him that the only way to save the Queen from total humiliation is for Shylo to travel to London, find the Royal Rabbits, and alert them to be on guard. Shylo, small and timid, rises to the challenge.What an adventure Shylo has! This is a fun, light-hearted that teaches children about privacy, facing your fears, and being the best bunny that they can be. The Royal Rabbits of London gets 6 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.
    • 4/5
      Children's fiction (short chapter book/poss. family readaloud)

      a fun adventure that reminds one simultaneously of Polly Horvath's Mr. and Mrs. Bunny and Dick King-Smith's Babe.

    Book preview

    The Royal Rabbits - Santa Montefiore

    chapterimage

    In a deep, dark burrow at the edge of the forest, Horatio, the old grey rabbit, heard the rustle of leaves and the patter of paws. He put down his book, ears sharp, and sat up straight in the big, tatty armchair where he had been warming himself in front of the fire.

    Horatio was elderly and grizzled, and a stump was all that remained of his hind left paw, but his hearing was as good as ever and he listened carefully as the footsteps grew louder. The old rabbit’s heartbeat quickened and he began to slide the handle from his walking stick, easing a blade into the dim light.

    When a rabbit has been hunted by his enemies who want to kill him, he never sleeps easy again. ‘Who twitches there?’ he demanded, looking over the cracked frame of his spectacles. His voice sounded strangely gruff, more like a dog’s growl than a rabbit’s murr.

    ‘It’s me, Shylo Tawny-Tail,’ replied a soft voice nervously. In the doorway, Shylo gave a gentle thump of his hind paw – for that is what polite rabbits do when they arrive somewhere – and twitched his nose.

    Horatio relaxed and slid the sword back into his walking stick. ‘Come in, young Shylo Tawny-Tail,’ he said. But the small, skinny rabbit hesitated for, although he had visited Horatio more than a dozen times now, the old buck was still an alarming sight.

    ‘Don’t be afraid! You’ve come back for more stories about the Old World, have you?’ murred Horatio, whose smile revealed a broken yellow tooth.

    ‘Yes,’ Shylo replied, lolloping into the gloomy room.

    Horatio looked at Shylo’s narrow shoulders, his scrawny body, the red eyepatch worn to correct his squint and he had yet to see a weaker and more feeble bunny. But Horatio knew that looks could be deceiving. After all, hadn’t he been just as weak and feeble once? Hadn’t he then risen to great heights?

    He smiled at the courage of the small bunny because not only was it forbidden by the Leaders of the Warren to venture this close to the farm, but it was also absolutely and totally and unmistakably forbidden to visit Horatio.

    When Horatio had arrived here all those years ago, broken in both body and mind, not to mention strange in manner, for he belonged to a very different variety of rabbit, they had barred their burrows against him. He had been forced to build a home on the other side of the forest, only a short distance from the farm that nestled in the valley below.

    Indeed, fear of strangers was a terrible thing. But Shylo’s curiosity seemed so much greater than his initial fear. Indeed, it was his curiosity that had led the little bunny to Horatio’s burrow in the first place and was what kept him coming back again and again.

    ‘So where does your mother think you are this time?’ Horatio asked.

    ‘I said I was going to dig up turnips,’ Shylo replied, one ear flopping over his forehead in embarrassment because, as lies go, it wasn’t a very good one.

    ‘Well, no one will find you in this part of the forest, that’s for sure.’

    Horatio pointed at the store cupboard with a shaky paw that was always wrapped in a bandage. ‘You’ll find a bag of turnips in there. I can’t send you back empty-handed. You know you could get into a lot of trouble coming to see me.’

    ‘Mother says you’re . . .’ Shylo hesitated suddenly because what his mother said about Horatio wasn’t very polite.

    ‘Mad?’ Horatio finished the sentence with a chuckle, then erupted into a fit of coughing. ‘I know what they say. That I’ve lost my mind and that my enemies will find me here and put everyone in terrible danger. Fear is born out of ignorance, Shylo Tawny-Tail. Don’t ever forget that. Your Leaders don’t know any better.’

    Shylo gazed at the long scar on the old buck’s cheek, the bandaged paw, the ugly stump of his missing fourth paw and his left ear which seemed to have been almost entirely bitten off, and he understood why other rabbits were afraid of crazy Horatio. The old rabbit looked like he’d had a fight with Tobias the farm cat, and won. But Shylo had discovered, quite by chance, that the battle-scarred buck was really a surprisingly gentle rabbit once you got to know him.

    Horatio took off his glasses. ‘Sit down, Shylo. Now where did we finish last time?’

    Shylo went to the bookcase and pulled down a large, heavy book and carried it, rather unsteadily, across the room. He perched on the stool beside Horatio and pushed the book, covered in cobwebs, on to the big buck’s knee. Horatio read out its title: ‘The Rise and Fall of the Great Rabbit Empire.’

    ‘You were telling me about the Great Rabbit Empire,’ murred Shylo eagerly. ‘When the Great Rabbits of England governed much of the Rabbit World. At that time, most of the Human World was ruled by the Great British Empire. As above, so below, I believe you said. Then both empires fell—’

    ‘Yes, the British lost many of the lands they’d conquered in faraway places and so did the Great Rabbits,’ Horatio interrupted. ‘Now America is the most powerful country in the Human World and the American rabbits are the most powerful in the Rabbit World. But let’s go back to the beginning. Tell me about the oath made long ago to protect the Royal Family. Tell me about that band of elite rabbits.’

    Shylo’s eyes shone with excitement. ‘Many hundreds of years ago, when King Arthur ruled England, he declared that rabbit pie should be the favourite meal of the kingdom. But his seven-year-old nephew, Prince Mordred, loved rabbits. He knelt down in front of the whole court and begged his uncle to change his mind.

    ‘King Arthur was a wise king who loved Mordred dearly, so, after a little thought, he declared that cottage pie should be the favourite dish instead. Thousands of rabbits’ lives were saved and cottage pie did become the preferred meal of the British people. The cleverest and bravest of all the rabbits wanted to thank Prince Mordred and so they took an oath to serve the Royal Family of England. They built a warren beneath the castle in Camelot and called themselves the Rabbits of the Round Table.’

    ‘At the very moment that King Arthur freed the rabbits from the Curse of the Rabbit Pie, something magical happened, didn’t it, Shylo?’ said Horatio. ‘Children and only children were given the ability to see those very special rabbits. But it is a gift that only lasts through childhood. As soon as they grow up, they lose that magic and see just ordinary rabbits, like everyone else.’

    Shylo nodded, eager to continue. ‘Many hundreds of years later, when the Royal Family moved to London, the Rabbits of the Round Table became the Royal Rabbits of London.

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