Reviewed by Mrs. Barbara Ramirez

The summer of 1981, before I turned 11, my dad felt it was high time I moved on from my obsession with Nancy Drew. As he loved to scour 2nd-hand book shops in Cubao, he found one book which he believed would be perfect for me. Watership Down would be my first legit full-length novel. Whether it was the blurb at the back of the book, or the book cover itself which appealed to my old man … I will be forever grateful to him, to Richard Adams, and to the long lazy summers of my youth which all connived to suck me into the world of the novel. Watership Down has been my go-to summer book since then.

It is a story of fear and betrayal and courage and loyalty -- themes which are so universal one can find in many works of fiction. But to my 11-year-old eyes, the book was purely that of adventure and bravery and friendship. No spoilers here because I want you to read the book and fall in love with it as I did many many summers ago.

Beneath some quiet grass-covered hills in rural England, a rabbit warren goes about its usual activities, but above, something is amiss. This is sensed by a clairvoyant rabbit named Fiver. He is anxious and disturbed and warns the rest that something terrible is going to happen. Very few believe him, though. Above them, he says, there are men who burn white sticks (cigarettes) in their mouths and will bring destruction to the warren.

To say I was hooked is an understatement. There are about 413 pages to the novel, and it took me a whole week to read non-stop.

One of my favorite quotes is from another main character, Holly:

“There's terrible evil in the world. It comes from men," said Holly. "All other ‘elil’ do what they have to do and Frith moves them as he moves us. They live on the earth and they need food. Men will never rest till they've spoiled the earth and destroyed the animals.”

‘elil’ - rabbit term for ‘enemy’

‘Frith’ - Lord Frith is the sun, whom the rabbits deem as a ‘god’

Yes, the book contains an entire culture of the supposed rabbit world, language, mythology, etc