Because of the Rabbit

Emma and her family are eating supper the evening before Emma’s first day of fifth grade. Emma’s father, Gabe, who works as a Maine Game Warden, gets a call about a wild rabbit stuck in a fence. Emma wants to help her father rescue the rabbit; since Gabe thinks it will be quick, Emma’s mother agrees.

Emma needs to get an early night because she is starting a new school, Lakeview Elementary School, the following day. Emma and her brother Owen were homeschooled together until the previous year when Owen decided he wanted to try public high school. Even though Emma loves the freedom of homeschooling—it allows her, for instance, to read in kayaks on the lake or help Gabe with animal rescues—it hasn’t been the same since Owen started public school. Owen asks Emma how she is feeling, and who is winning the race between “Excited or Scared.” This is a game they used to play while trying new things: “Excited is way ahead, but Scared is coming on strong” (2), Emma replies.

On the way to rescue the rabbit, Emma thinks about all the animals she has helped her father save and remembers her grandfather’s stories about tricky “Monsieur Lapin, Mr.