Meet Hedgie! Baby Hedgehog (Finger Puppet Book)

Meet Hedgie, the baby hedgehog! She's not indigenous to North America, but they love her in Britain, where she's a favorite character in lots of stories. (Alice in Wonderland tried to play croquet with her hedgehog!)

He's not a cousin of the American porcupine, but they both have prickles, although Hedgie's are nowhere as fierce as Porkie's. Hedgehogs are becoming popular pets, being small and mostly quiet, although they do sometimes purr softly to themselves.

This baby hedgehog does like to explore the forest floor and dig with his little front paws under the autumn leaves.

And when he is happy, he lets out a tiny squeal!

In Yu Hsuan Huang's Baby Hedgehog: Finger Puppet Book (Chronicle Books, 2018), toddlers and preschoolers can meet this interesting little animal. Adult fingers fit well to animate the hedgehog on the cover, and he cooperates by pulling his head through his hole to emerge on each of the subsequent pages, where he can explore the forest floor, dig for treats, or curl up in his cozy nest. And as the owner of this tiny toy-and-movable book grows, he or she can take over the puppeteering duties and personally put Hedgie through his paces.

For a companion hedgehog story, share this one with Ben Sutton's Hedgehug's Halloween (see review here) or M. Christina Butler's One Snowy Night (review here). And pair this one especially this season with Jan Brett's latest wintry Hedgie tale The Snowy Nap, The Snowy Nap (see review here).