The Rabbits

“The Rabbits” is an allegory tale about colonisation from Australia’s history; but is not your usual picture book.   Not only does it expresses a literal interpretation of the story by words but conveys messages through the pictures. Lighting and colour is one of the first things a reader will notice in the picture book. On the first page where it shows how the land used to be before the British had invaded. The bright colours and bright lighting in the images suggest happiness and peace, but as you read on, the colours and lighting darken and dull to a sepia colour conveying sadness, distraught and sorrow as the British invaded the land and stole the Aboriginals children. This immediately makes the reader understand a feel the pain of what the Aboriginals went through.
The most important layout of the book is the picture where the rabbits are holding up a frame and surrounded by buildings Salient imagery and vectors are what draw your eyes to the frame. The colour inside the frame a bright and vibrant and the colours surrounding it are dark and dull. The vibrant colours are used to try and convince you that what the rabbits were doing were a good thing and that they were trying to help the numbats. Immediately the reader responds by questioning, how is what you are doing helping?   It’s causing pain and hard ache. In the background, building that line one after is assembled by puzzle pieces. Why? Each puzzle piece symbolizes each move the Rabbits are taking to take of their land. In the beginning it was sudden but as time went on they took small steps to reach their victory.