Take Me Witcha When You Go! The Friend Ship by Kat Yeh

Hedgehog was curled up in a prickly ball in the lonely little nook of a lonely little tree.

If you're lookin' for love, the crook of a lonely tree is probably not the best place to find it, but Hedgie does hear some passerbys in a conversation that gives her an idea.

"Friendship is out there--all she has to do is look...."

Hmmm! There's a Friend Ship? Hedgie makes up her mind to set sail in her little boat and find that ship. Beaver helps her shove off, and soon they spot a herd of deer grazing on shore, and she asks if they have seen the Friend Ship. They haven't, but one speaks for the rest of them.

"Man, I could use a friend.  Can we come along?"

It's seems it's "only the lonely" out there, and as the little boat sails on, to the east, to the north, and to the south, it meets up with Little Rat, who asks for a ride. And one by one others join the crew as well. Then they sail up to a small island, where what must be the loneliest elephant in the world is marooned. Hedgehog swims over to ask if he's seen the Friend Ship.

"Isn't that it right over there?" he says, pointing to her crowded boat.

"You'll find your happiness lies right under your eyes, back in your own backyard" goes the old song, and suddenly Hedgehog realizes she's found the real friends she wants already, in Kat Yeh's sweet story of friendship found, The Friend Ship (Hyperion Books, 2016).

Artist Chuck Groenink does an admirable job of extending Yeh's straightforward narration with his gentle muted pastel illustrations which become more vivid as Hedgehog's Friend Ship sails happily westward into the setting sun. This is a good read for Valentine's Day, even though the premise is mostly metaphorical and not punctuated with big red Valentines. Of Groenink's artwork Publishers Weekly says, "The depth and quality of the light gives the spreads a hint of the sacred—just right for this hymn to friendship."

On the Rocky Road to Love: Hedgehugs by Steve Wilson and Lucy Tapper

HORACE AND HATTIE ARE THE VERY BEST OF FRIENDS.

THERE ARE SO MANY THINGS THEY LIKE TO DO TOGETHER.

They do duo daisy chains, splash in rain puddles, and research the four-leaf clovers by the river.

In fact, there's just one joint venture in which they don't succeed--HUGS!

Hugs are hard for hedgehogs.

THEY ARE JUST TOO SPIKY!

Not that they haven't tried several approaches. Rolling in fresh snow results in snow cover, but they are too frozen to enjoy their snowy hugs. They squeeze inside sections of hollow log, and try to embrace, but logs are just too lumpy.

They try spearing strawberries on each of their prickles, but attempting to embrace simply results in the makings for a strawberry smoothie.

Finally they stumble upon a solution--thick woolly stockings! They nibble out a hole for their heads in the heels and with a bit of a struggle, pull the socks over their prickles. AH! Comfy and completely non-abrasive body stockings! Now for...

... A PERFECT HEDGE-HUG!

Love conquers all, in Steve Wilson's and Lucy Tapper's Hedgehugs (Henry Holt and Company, 2015), a sweet tale of a too-spiky pair who find a way to show their affection. Tapper's soft-colored collaged backgrounds are pleasantly pretty and do not distract from the lovable digitally-produced main characters, and author Wilson offers a closing joke that the old problem of missing socks in the wash are a sure sign of hedge-hugs happening somewhere. For a Valentine's Day read, this one sticks to the theme that love always finds a way!

Other tales of of hard-to-hug American porcupines and British hedgehogs include Kara LeReau's and Scott Magoon's Mr. Prickles: A Quill-Fated Love Story and Benn Sutton's Hedgehug: A Sharp Lesson in Love. For more tales of the propinquity-challenged prickly people, see reviews here.