Gather initial thoughts and broad opinions about the book.

1. What was your overall emotional reaction to reading Rabbit Hill? Did you find it to be a comforting, simple children’s story, or did its underlying themes of scarcity and fear give it more weight?

2. Rabbit Hill is part of a long tradition of animal fantasies. How did Robert Lawson’s depiction of the animal community compare to other books in this genre, like Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows?

3. Lawson is also the book’s illustrator. How did his drawings influence your reading experience and your connection to the characters and the setting of Rabbit Hill?

Encourage readers to connect the book’s themes and characters with their personal experiences.

1. The animals spend the first part of the book anxiously speculating about whether the “new Folks” will be kind and generous. Can you recall a time in your own life when you waited for new neighbors, a new boss, or other new people and felt a similar mix of hope and worry?

2. Uncle Analdas reflects that both good times and bad times eventually pass, but “there’s always new Folks comin’” (53). Have you experienced periods in your life where things changed in a similar way? How did you respond to those changes?

3. Mother Rabbit and Father Rabbit represent two very different approaches to dealing with uncertainty, with Mother anticipating every possible danger and Father maintaining a courtly optimism. Which character’s coping mechanism felt more familiar or relatable to you, and how do you usually respond when you face uncertainty?

4. The community has established traditions like Dividing Night to maintain order. What unspoken rules or rituals have you observed in your own communities that help everyone get along, especially when resources are limited?

5. How did you personally respond to the motto carved into the statue, “There—is—enough—for—all” (123)? Have you encountered situations in your own life where this idea of generosity or shared abundance felt meaningful or challenging?

6. Has a simple song or a shared phrase ever brought a group you were a part of together, like how Little Georgie’s song brings the Hill together?

Examine the book’s relevance to societal issues, historical events, or cultural themes.

1. Rabbit Hill was published in 1944 and can be read in the context of the American home front during World War II, particularly the Victory Garden movement. How did this historical context shape your understanding of the animals’ intense focus on gardening and food security?

2. The new Folks’ philosophy of stewardship contrasts sharply with more cautious and protective attitudes toward property and crops. What does the novel suggest about different societal approaches to coexisting with nature and wildlife?

3. What kind of social commentary do you think Lawson might be making through the character of Tim McGrath, who believes that too much reading “rots the mind” and shows skepticism toward the new Folks’ ideas (71)?

Dive into the book’s structure, characters, themes, and symbolism.

1. How does Lawson use anthropomorphism to explore complex human themes like social order, fear of the unknown, and trust? Do the animals feel like believable creatures, or are they primarily stand-ins for human society?

2. What is the effect of the narrative perspective, which stays almost entirely with the animals? How did observing the new Folks only from the outside, without access to their thoughts, shape the story’s tension and resolution?

3. Uncle Analdas shows deep skepticism and caution toward the new Folks before gradually becoming more trusting. What do you think is the primary motivation for his deep-seated suspicion, and what makes his final change of heart so powerful?

4. The garden is a powerful symbol throughout the book. How does its meaning evolve from a representation of neglect and scarcity to a site of shared abundance and then to a “forbidden ground” protected by the animals themselves?

5. Lawson revisited these characters in a sequel titled The Tough Winter. Based on the harmonious ending of Rabbit Hill, what kinds of conflicts do you imagine the animals might face in a more challenging season, and how might their pact with the Folks be tested?

6. How does the recurring phrase “new Folks coming” (12, 21, 45, 60), as it moves from a rumor into a shared song, reflect the community’s shift from anxiety to hope?

Encourage imaginative and creative connections to the book.

1. The statue of St. Francis becomes a permanent symbol of the covenant between the Folks and the animals. If you were commissioned to create a different monument for the Hill to celebrate this pact, what would you design, and what message would it convey?

2. Porkey the Woodchuck is a stubborn and individualistic character. Imagine you’re writing a short story from his perspective. What would a typical day look like for him before the new Folks arrive, and how would he describe the changes on the Hill?

3. If you could give one piece of advice to any character on the Hill at the height of their personal crisis, who would you talk to, and what would you say? What might you say to Uncle Analdas as he begins to grow increasingly suspicious of the new Folks?