It is hard to review a small coffeetable book full of beautiful photos of all kinds of charming rabbits. So, how are these for overall statements?

Funny Bunnies is the perfect gift for Easter-time giving!

It’s adorable!

If you love bunnies, you’ll love this book!

But are these photos funny?

To my animal-respecting mind, these rabbits aren’t funny. They are beautiful, either totally relaxed or playful. They are not doing funny things, nor are they dressed up in people’s clothing. Like domesticated rabbits everywhere, they are just lying around or lounging with their bunny friends. Despite the fact that rabbits are fragile, they hate pain, and they are not always willing to be cuddly, there is no doubt that bunnies are one of the more gorgeous and soft of all domesticated (if they are) animals. It’s not at all clear if they are funny.

This book includes more than seventy clear, well-composed color photographs of many species of rabbits by Laurie Frankel. There are lops, long eyelashed, pink- and blue-eyed bunnies. A short text explaining each breed’s origin and salient qualities is included. In size, these bunnies range from around two pounds (the Dwarf Hotot, the Mixed Himalayan and California), making them one of the smallest possible pets, to around twenty pounds (the Flemish Giant), hefting in like a Maine coon cat. A glossary of more than thirty bunny organizations and clubs is useful for doing further research.

As I have always loved rabbit tales – The Velveteen Rabbit and anything by Beatrix Potter, as much for the illustrations as for the text -- I love this book. The photographs all make me smile. But the book itself (not the rabbits) is a bit silly, slightly over the top. Many of these rabbits have cutesy names. Not everyone would even look at this book; my husband, case in point, refuses (and he likes animals). The target reader must be very, very serious about loving rabbits in all their glory. If you are such a reader, and considering adopting a rabbit, looking through this book will make any such decision a whole lot harder.