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).

Hedgie's Hibernation: The Snowy Nap by Jan Brett

Hedgie sniffed the chill wind. "Snow is on the way," he thought.

"I'll just take a last ramble around the farm."

He didn't want to miss a moment.

The season is changing, and little Hedgie knows what hedgehogs do in winter. His eyelids are heavy. But like most youngsters, he's just not quite ready to sleep.

Hibernation can wait.

Meanwhile, his farm friends are full of stories of the wonders of winter that they can't wait for.

"We'll think of you as we play slip-and-slide across the pond. It's starting to freeze," honked the geese.

Billy Goat boasts that he's going to get to see Lise build her snowmen. Pig wishes that he could save some snowflakes for Hedgie to see. Pony proclaims that he's going to pull the sleigh for everyone to take a ride to see the woods full of snow and decorated with icicles.

That was the last straw! "I don't want to sleep all winter!" Hedgie protested.

"I want to see icicles, snowmen, snowballs and sleigh bells!"

Kind little Lise takes pity on the half-frozen Hedgie, bringing him inside and placing him snugly inside a tea cozy in a basket by the window. Drowsily, the little hedgehog watches all the wonders of winder--snowstorms, icy trees, frost-painted windows, snowballs and sleigh bells.

The little hedgehog experiences it all before at last Lise decides that the happy but hibernating little Hedgie is ready for his his own beddie-bye in his burrow for a long winter's nap, in Jan Brett's latest picture book, The Snowy Nap (G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2018).

In this companion book to Brett's many winters' tales, the author again chooses an Scandinavian setting where winter is more than just a passing change of season, and again brings forth the beauty of the natural world in her iconic illustrative style. Unlike many of her wintry stories, in this one Brett abandons her usual bright red and green primary accents, for subtler soft and soothing secondary shades done in watercolors and gouache. Artist Brett does. however, offer her usual curvaceous frames, foreshadowing what happens with each page turn. This is a good change-of-season wintry story to share with Brett's The Hat or any of her several Christmas tales. And for another happy hibernation tale, pair this one with Karma Wilson's Bear Snores On (Storytown).

Seriously Seeking Darkness! Turn Off That Light! by John Crossingham

Click!

...zzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

ZZZZ--"Snork!"

"TURN OFF THAT LIGHT!"

A little sleeping hedgehog is awakened by someone suddenly flipping the switch of his bedroom light.

The light switch is clicked and off go the lights.

It's back to dreamland, until...

Click!

"Huh?! Wuzzak?!

WHO KEEPS DOING THAT!"

Little Hedgehog rubs his offended eyes. He must get a good look at the prankster who is turning his light on and off.

Click! He's feeling his way across the room when he encounters a body/ He'll show that interloper whose room this is! Wacks and zaps ensue.

With another Click! Hedgehog sees that he's just beaten the stuffing (literally) out of his toy rabbit!

"Bunny?"

Muffled in mounds of pink plush bunny stuffing, Hedgehog tries to take control of the confusion by plugging in his own version of a trouble light! There's got to be some reason for this midnight switch flipping! He's going to nip that flipper!

"What? I said what? I asked for a drink of water?"

There is a logical reason for this midnight melee'. And, as is the wont in these crazed days of interactive picture books, it's customary to blame it all on the reader.

Yes, YOU, dear reader! You're the one who keeps making the lights come on--BY TURNING THOSE PAGES! Crossingham's droll hedgehog denies all culpability. He couldn't have asked for a drink of water and then fallen sound asleep, could he?

"I DID? Soooo... glug, glug, glug!"

In John Crossingham's latest, big-eyed little Hedgehog, sporting quills that end in a Mohawk do, stars in a very unique little bedtime story. Set against illustrator Steve Wilson's dark, shiny pages with wavering shadows and cartoon-style speech balloons, our anti-hero hedgehog sorts out the problem grumpily, and with a page turn and a final CLICK, he's finally off to sleep. Or is he? The pages are all turned. What else could happen?

"I HAVE TO GO TO THE BATHROOM...."

There's always the closing endpaper in John Crossingham's Turn Off That Light! (OwlKids Books, 2015), a quirky interactive story with a role for young readers.   Hey!  Dear Reader...  Don't close that cover... YET!

Sticky Situation: Hedgehog's Halloween by Benn Sutton and Dan Pinto

HEDGEHOG HAD JUST PUT ON HIS SLIPPERS WHEN HE HEARD SOMEONE AT THE TOP OF HIS BURROW.

"HOWDY PARTNER!  Y'ALL READY TO PAAARTY?"

Hannah Armadillo is all decked out as an old cowhand, and suddenly Hedgehog realizes he has forgotten all about the Halloween costume party! Ooops!

Costumes are always hard, and Hedgehog only has a little while to find one before the party begins.

Hedgehog's friends are ready and willing to help, but costuming a prickly person is not as easy as you might think. Their first thought is the ever-popular sheet to turn himself into a semi-scary ghost. But just pulling the cloth over his head turns it into a mess of holes.

"I'M SUPPOSED TO BE A GHOST, NOT SWISS CHEESE!"

Edie the owl comes up with an easy alternative. The friends blow up some purple balloons and tie them together. Hedgehog can go as a bunch of grapes! He tries them on.

Bang! Pow! Pop! Hedgehog's costume deflates instantly.

A mummy wrap turns out to be equally unworkable. Hedgehog is ready to give up.

But there is one costume idea that absolutely requires spines, and with a little help from his friends, Hedgehog is soon attired all in green, a perfectly spiny prickly pear cactus in Benn Sutton's happy Halloween story of the perils of being prickly, Hedgehug's Halloween (Harper, 2013).   Reassuring for young readers who may need some persuasion to put on their disguises and head out among all those creepy costumes and monster masks, this friendly little story may get them in the mood to join the party. Dan Pinto's textured collage illustrations are festive and bright to add to the holiday theme, and Sutton's final costume idea is a fitting and humorous surprise for youngsters to uncover.

Sutton and Pinto's first book about their thorny character who finds his way in a thin-skinned world is the February-themed Hedgehug: A Sharp Lesson in Love Hedgehug (see review here).