Sweet Embraceable You! The Perfect Hug by Joanna Walsh

I HAVE TRIED THEM ALL...

ELASTIC HUGS!
GYMNASTIC HUGS!
ENTHUSIASTIC HUGS!
BUT....

What is the perfect hug? A little panda, geared up in deerstalker cap and magnifying glass a la Sherlock sets out to find the quintessential embrace–with mixed results. It’s hard to get a humongous hug from a creature without arms! (So snails are out!) But then, spiders have a tad too many!

Big hugs from a grizzly? Y-e-e-s, they’re big, all right, but maybe too toothy and terrifying!

Out in Star Wars land, in a Galaxy far away? Um... Lots of space out there to search.

Down deep in the sea? A jellyfish! Nope, too easy to get stung among all those entangling tentacles!

Cow hug? Where do you start? Tiger hug? (See warning for grizzly above.)

What kind of hug is best for a little panda? That’s not a mystery in Joanna Walsh’s companion book to her 2011 hit, The Biggest Kiss (Paula Wiseman Books), titled The Perfect Hug (Paula Wiseman Books, 2012). Little Panda finds that panda hugs match panda hugs in Walsh’s latest sit-and-snuggle story for preschoolers. Despite her young audience, Walsh’s verse is sophisticated, with internal rhymes and surprising juxtapositions and lots of opportunities for vocabulary stretching. Artist Judi Abbott returns to extend the humor with her just-right, rounded and bright pastel illustrations, as warm and inviting as an embrace themselves. Together, these two books make the perfect almost-bedtime read-aloud duo.