Peacebunny Island: The Extraordinary Journey of a Boy and His Comfort Rabbits, and How They’re Teaching Us About Hope and Kindness
By: Caleb Smith / Foreword & Epilogue By: Caleb Smith / Narrated By: Michael Gallagher
Length: 9 hrs and 19 mins
AbsoLUTEly ASTOUNDING…!
You know me: One of my pathetic joys in life is scroooooolling through the New Releases to see if there’s a new Beatrice Hyde-Clare Mystery out in audiobook -or- if there’s a new Animals Pick for me. Ahhhhh, this March of 2021?
Peacebunny Island!!!
Dude, I was sooo THERE!
And it couldn’t have come at a better time. While the Covid delta variant is having our County in Central Texas raised to Stage 4 protocols while fewer and fewer people are masking, while the Capitol Riots from January 6th are now being seen as Patriots possibly doing their duty, as global climate change has spawned heatwaves, droughts, fatal floods? Ahhhhhh, PEACEBUNNIES! -AND- Caleb Smith!
What an amazing Listen. Encapsulated within this boy baaaaarely a teenager as of the writing, are ALL the things two therapists have been trying to teach me for the past 11 years.
8-year old Caleb’s dad really isn’t into pets. But Caleb is pragmatic and unsentimental when it comes to getting his first rabbit, Snickers. Soon, the family falls in love with the affable and box-trained rabbit, and Snickers does sooo much good in their neighborhood, that after his death, Caleb grieves for a long time then begins to open his heart again. A search for a new rabbit companion has him with a spreadsheet (The kid is 8!) of over 300 possibilities/rabbits who might be a good fit and who desperately need a good home. This breaks his heart, and after he chooses Paxton, sees what good THAT bunny is doing, a plan begins forming in his mind.
The kid has watched “Shark Tank” and comes up with a plan. He approaches his parents with a comPLETE plan to give rabbits homes, breed endangered rabbits, start school programs, teach Boot Camps on Rabbit Care, offer rabbits as fosters to families with disabilities in the household, and even begin a STEM program so that kids might learn Biology and Environmental Science as they care for… The Peacebunnies. (The kid is 8!)
All whilst visiting veterans homes, nursing homes, hospices for the Peacebunnies to work their loving therapeutic magic.
Things get bigger after that, soon a spot on a farm is needed and Caleb takes care of that, and soon a whole farm is envisioned, and Caleb takes care of THAT. All the while, he’s sharing love and joy around the place, involving kids and families, garnering a MULtitude of volunteers, and pretty soon he’s… thinking BIGGER.
An Island!
As he finds an island to lease, after all, he’s gotta see if his vision is workable or not, he considers emergencies and how to evacuate the island soooo… a HOUSEBOAT. Which he finds, purchases, and soon he and a few of his best buddies are sailing it 100 miles back home, having the adventure of their lives. Cuz, see: THEY’RE ALL JUST A BUNCH OF KIDS! Seriously, forgive the shouting, but the whole time I was listening to this, I kept reminding myself that he was just a freaking kid!
Along the way, he deals with defeat and dashed hopes (“If I can take the praise, I can take the criticism also” and “When one door closes, another one might open”), he learns how to hold two entirely different emotions in different hands but felt at the same time (As in: Extreme worry and extreme relief and joy), and every now and then his dreams get sooo big that he has to step back and remind himself of his Grandma’s words: Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.
Speaking of Grandma, his enTIRe family is awesome. His parents back him every step of the way, tho’ as this boy is too young to drive, they’re carting him around from engagement to engagement. They’re the ones who are helping him spot farms; they’re the ones who simply murmur, “An island, eh?” and helping him sign the contract even tho’ he’s the one who’s corralling all the donors and is raising funds.
Did I mention that He’s Just A Freaking KID?!?
Soooo amazing; so inspiring. Life has been looking bleak and here in 2021 THIS comes out and just knocks my socks off!
Good narration by Michael Gallagher really captures the pragmatic and hopeful youthfulness, and Gallagher then goes on to perform Caleb’s maturing with each new experience. I’m soooo glad he narrates it as Caleb (May I call you Caleb? I feel like I know you now that I’m WORSHIPPING oh what you’ve done!) reads the foreword and epilogue. Caleb, barely coming into young manhood, starts the foreword well, but with the epilogue, it’s kinda like he’s reading/relaying word by word, so Gallagher for the whole of this admirable journey was awesome.
Life could look gloomy and make a person feel helpless, but listening to someone who saw not obstacles but visions and Hope was soooo uplifting, so danged wonderful. It was just what I needed, juuuuust what the doctor (Nay, therapists!) would have ordered.
And did I mention: A freaking KID!!!
Go Caleb, Go! Onward with the Peacebunnies!
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