Not So Tight! Hugs from Pearl by Paul Schmid

PEARL IS SWEET. SHE'S A VERY GOOD FRIEND.

SHE PLAYS FAIR. SHE SHARES HER LUNCH TREATS, AND BEST OF ALL....

PEARL LOVES TO HUG!

But Pearl is not perfect. Pearl's problem is that she is prickly. No, she's not a petulant or pugnacious or persnickety personality. Pearl's problem is that she is a porcupine!

Her classmates say "OUCH!" a lot. Her teacher keeps the Band-Aids handy. Soft-hearted Pearl prefers not to hurt anyone, and her quillaciousness is getting in the way of her personal relationships. What to do?

She tries long hot baths to soften the quills. She pokes pincushions on the offending points. She even talks her mom into a butch-style quillcut. But none of these procedures are permanent solutions to the prickly problem. But Pearl is persistent. She perseveres at her search for a solution, and one day, observing bees working around a thorny rose bush, she comes up with a compromise that cuts down on the need for so many Band-Aids at school.

Paul Schmid's newest, Hugs from Pearl (Harper, 2011), takes a look at personal problems that flow, not from what kids do so much as from what they are. Kids are tall, short, nearsighted, shy, clumsy, and a whole passle of physical characteristics that can affect relationships, and Pearl is a porcupine who takes her innate prickliness in hand and finds a useful work-around to deal with it. Schmid's illustrations are simple, funny, and telling, pointing up this character's real dilemma and her courage in taking ownership of it and persisting in finding a solution. Pearl is a girl whose loving nature shines through in a sweet and satisfying story.

For more giggles, pair Pearl with Deborah Underwood's A Balloon for Isabel, reviewed here for a pair of sisters-above-the-skin, a prickly pair of porcupine protagonists who find a way to make their quills work for them.

Egg-regious Adventure: Oliver and His Egg by Paul Schmid

WHEN OLIVER FOUND HIS EGG...

Well, it isn't exactly an egg. It's a large oval rock that looks like...

... an EGG!

But when Oliver sits on top of it, the fertile imagination that lives under that tousled head of hair goes to work immediately. The rock becomes an orange egg, from which hatches....

... an orange-spotted... something-or-other.

It looks like a dinosaur or a sea serpent and it looks like a friend, and as soon as Oliver shares his cookies and milk, his friend begins to grow.

It grows into something like a giant Viking ship pool float, and Oliver dons his Viking helmet as they sail off to have adventures on a deserted island, where happily there are marshmallows for roasting.

Then it's back to adventuring, as Oliver's friend morphs into an orange spaceship, and they land on their own planet, space helmets in place for some space walking. But just then a girl's voice is heard from far-away earth.

"OLIVER!..."

"WHY ARE YOU SITTING ON THAT ROCK?"

Poof! Oliver looks down. By George, he is sitting on a rock. Oliver and the girl size each other up silently.

Should he tell her what the rock really is?

Paul Schmid's second Oliver story, Oliver and his Egg (Hyperion Books, 2014) is a celebration of the imaginary adventures kids hatch in their fertile fancy. Schmid makes the most of his simple palette of lavender, orange, gray, and white, done up in his characteristic black line drawings, as he lets his story emerge naturally, even using a final four-page gatefold spread to reveal the possibilities when all of the kids let their fancies fly free.

Other books by Schmid include his notable back-to-school story, Oliver and his Alligator (see my review and Schmid's comment here), his A Pet for Petunia and Hugs from Pearl.

Wild Thing! Petunia Goes Wild by Paul Schmid

BEING HUMAN WAS JUST...
TOO... CLEAN. TOO CAREFUL.

TOO CLOTHED. TOO COMBED.

TOO QUIET.      TOO...HAFTA!

Preschooler Petunia knows that she was meant to be a wild animal. She's had it with scratchy clothes, hairdos, and too much... order. It's time for a walk on the wild side for our girl!

On Monday morning Petunia issues her manifesto. She eats her breakfast from the floor, runs around outside, roaring at anyone or anything who goes by. She rolls around in a mud puddle--without benefit of swimsuit! She declares that she is her parents' pet and even offers them a collar and leash for her. Her parents have a meltdown.  They have no intentions of trading their daughter for a pet Petunia!

"NO! YOU MAY NOT!

THAT IS NOT HOW A NICE LITTLE GIRL BEHAVES!

Petunia is sent to the corner to think about why humans have rules, and as she peers through the bars on the back of the kitchen chair, she has a wild idea.

Carefully she sneaks off to find a marker and gathers all the postage stamps she can find. Petunia prints an address on the outside of a large, comfortable box.

MAIL TO AFRICA.

Petunia crawls inside her mailer and waits to be transported to where the wild things are. It's a long wait.

Then Petunia hears her mother singing softly and suspects that she's making cookies in the kitchen. Hmmmm!

"TIGERS DON'T SING," THOUGHT PETUNIA.

Life on the wild side requires a bit of re-thinking in Paul Schmid's latest, Petunia Goes Wild (Harper, 2012). Illustrated in Schmid's evocative but minimalist style, Petunia, wearing her trademark lavender-striped dress with safety-pinned tiger tail (when she's not wearing mud), is a character most kids will understand, one who tires of all the rules no matter how many good reasons there are for them. Schmid and his character come to a comfortable compromise, with Petunia's big escape box carefully put away in her room for future need, while she decides to accept the perks--including fresh cookies and a tickle and hug at bedtime--of being a nice little girl--for the moment.

Schmid's other noted picture books include A Pet for Petunia and Hugs from Pearl (see my review here.)

Very CAREFULLY! How Do You Hug A Porcupine? by Laura Isop

HUGGING BUNNIES IS JUST DIVINE!

BUT HOW DO YOU HUG A PORCUPINE?

Even the bunny is not so sure this is a good idea, even if the loving little girl in this story-in-rhyme seems determined to hug as many critters as she can corral. Dogs are cinchy--they go for affection most any time. The cat, however, looks a little askance as she is approached for a caress. And for that pony, provide a pail of grain and--instant equine popularity:

HUG A HORSE? OF COURSE!

Cows? Could be. A pig. Well, spread your arms big! Bring a ladder for the giraffe, certainly, but that elephant makes it easy by offering a friendly trunk to give a squeeze right back.

But a porcupine gives even this protagonist cause for a pause. Like, where do you start?

Laurie Isop takes on this pricklesome problem in her How Do You Hug a Porcupine? (Simon & Schuster, 2011), pushed along by her bouncy verse and propelled with humor by illustrator Gwen Millward's ability to give the objects of our girl's affections comic expressions that mirror their own personalities. Her chosen porcupine is doubtlessly dubious about the whole idea, which adds to the fun of the final and inevitable embrace. Pair this one with Paul Schmid's porcupine's-eye-view of the whole embraceable dilemma in his recent Hugs from Pearl. (See my review here. )

Pointed Wordplay: Mr. Prickles: A Quill-Fated Love Story by Kara LaReau

MR. PRICKLES WAS NOT A PARTICULARLY FRIENDLY FELLOW.

MUCH OF HIS UNFRIENDLINESS WAS DUE TO THE FACT THAT MR. PRICKLES WAS A PORCUPINE.

AT FIRST MR. PRICKLES TRIED TO MAKE FRIENDS WITH THE OTHER FOREST ANIMALS.

But it's tricky to make a close friend when you're hard to get, er, close to.

And the cliquishness of those fur-weather friends in the forest is not much help either.

"YOU'RE NOT CUTE LIKE US!" SAID RACCOON. "OR CUDDLY LIKE US!" SAID CHIPMUNK.

"OR PLAYFUL LIKE US!" SAID SKUNK.

"I AM INSIDE," SAID MR. PRICKLES.

But the would-be playmates can't get past his prickly persona, and being excluded from the group doesn't do Mr. Prickles' personality any favors either. Their pointed quips pierce his soul, and Mr. Prickles feels he'll always be a quilled outcast, unfriended by his particular social network.

But it's a big world out there in the forest, and one day Mr. Prickles bumps into a similarly equipped and be-quilled personage, in the form of Miss Pointypants, and it seems that Cupid's arrow may have made its way to his heart. Even though their would-be pals nickname the quilled couple "Spike and Barb," it seems that love will find a way and the two prickly personalities may find a way to each others' hearts in a quill-fated friendship.

Author Kara LaReau is lookin' sharp with pointed puns in her latest, Mr. Prickles: A Quill-Fated Love Story (Roaring Brook, 2011), her wordplay ably portrayed in Scott Magoon's playful pictures. As they suggest, everybody has some prickles sometimes, and the trick is learning how to get close enough to see the non-prickliness on the inside.

Quills and porcupines are quite popular these days, making it easy to pair this one with other porcupine picture books that make the same point--Paul Schmid's Hugs from Pearl (see my review here) and Laurie Isop's How Do You Hug a Porcupine?, (reviewed here), two tales that make the point that getting close means learning to see the person inside the prickles.

Match Made in Heaven: Hedgehug--A Sharp Lesson In Love by Benn Sutton

HEDGEHOG SAT AT HIS TABLE DRAWING RED CRAYON HEARTS.

TOMORROW WAS VALENTINE'S DAY, THE DAY HE HAD BEEN WAITING AND WAITING FOR.

"TOMORROW I AM GOING TO BE IN LOVE," HE SAID.

Hedgehog hopefully sets forth with his Valentine heart in hand, his heart on his sleeve, so to speak, believing as he says, "Love is everywhere!"

Looking for the object of his affections, he spots a pretty little white bunny sitting alone in the snow. He gives her a big red heart and a hug and gets a strong response, all right!

"OUCH!"

Bunny blows him off, throwing his crayoned heart down behind her as she stomps away.

Undeterred, Hedgehog moves on to try the same opening moves with Owl and Boar, with similar results.

"LOVE HURTS!"

His homemade Valentine heart is ripped and his own heart seems broken. Then he meets up with just the right honey of a lady with whom to share his hugs--Hannah Armadillo, who, not surprisingly, doesn't mind hedgehog hugs at all.

Dan Pinto and Benn Sutton's lookin'-for-love-in-all-the-wrong-places story, Hedgehug: A Sharp Lesson in Love (HarperCollins) is a sweet story of finding just the right Valentine in time for the big day. Love, it seems, is more than skin deep--but a thick skin helps!

Pinto's illustrations are done up in appealingly childlike style and the text is simple enough for early readers to negotiate.  Pair this one with either of two other lonely prickly guy tales, Paul Schmid's Hugs from Pearl (see my review here.) or Scott Magoon's Mr. Prickles: A Quill-Fated Love Story. (see review here.)