Heart-y Reading: Hug Time by Patrick McDonnell

Patrick McConnell, creator of the Mutts comic strip, has come up with an elegant little book which is a simple and sweet salute to the impulse behind Valentine's Day.

Hug Time announces its subject with a bold pink heart right on the front cover. Inside we meet Jules, a quirky little orange-striped kitten with a daunting compulsion:

"There was once a kitten so filled with love
He wanted to give the whole world a hug."

Jules sets forth with the blessings of his owner Doozy and friends Mooch, Noodles, and Earl, and embarks upon a world wide tour. After hugging a blue whale (easier said than done), he embraces a chimp, girafe, hippo, and even a baobab tree in Africa.

"Off to India, with its tigers so few,
Finding one was hard to do!

Traveling on he hugged a gnu,
A panda, a peacock, a petite pudu.
A wallaby, wombat and a humuhumu fish,
Number 3, you see, on the Hug To-Do List."

The rhyming story ends with welcome hugs for Jules when he returns home, and that night he sleeps, embraced by Doozy at last.

McDonnell's minimalist pen and water color illustrations have a certain retro elegance which somehow add weight to the fluffy little story line. Lines are squiggly and the drawings, centered on creamy white pages, fade out at the margins, accented with a lightly slap-dashed wash of colors. It's a little book that will delight toddlers and adults alike with its simple message of love for all.