Group Hug

This wonderfully clever and inventive story about needing hugs all round is the perfect answer, both during the current pandemic and the soon (hopefully) end of such, because everyone needs hugs, it doesn’t matter how young or old we are.  The rhymes are very skilful and funny, and the illustrations huggable; the inclusivity ticks lots of boxes too.  But it is the whole that is so impressive.  First of all comes a slug in need of a hug: ‘Along came a beetle, a lonely ol’ bug.  You need a hug?  I have one said Slug, to keep your heart snug.’  And so it goes.  A mouse, a squirrel, a skunk (not the happiest of huggers), a beaver, a porcupine (quill-less), a groundhog, a goose, a fox and a moose – and after each addition there is a bigger and bigger group hug until it becomes huge. ‘Then along lumbered Bear needing someone to care. Not to snack on, I swear… yet they shouted, BEWARE!’ But the others are too scared to add him to the mixture, and they scatter to the four winds.  Only the Slug is left because he understands that those who give hugs ‘find happy as much as the hugged’.  On the final page we see the whole crew reunited in one humongous hug.  Brilliantly executed and full of the repetition and colour that appeals so to the young.