I Need a Hug by Aaron Blabey
Published by Scholastic Press on December 26th 2018
ISBN: 1338297104
Pages: 24
Goodreads

This book was published in Australia in 2015, but this is the first American edition. If you have Pig the Pug fans in your library, they will recognize and enjoy Blabey’s eye-popping creatures and humorous touch. Porcupine needs a hug, but who would hug a prickly creature like that? Not a rabbit or a moose or a bear, but that snake looking for a kiss? Yes, indeed. With simple rhymes and clear, bright illustrations, Blabey shows that sometimes you have to find the right friend to give you what you need. The biggest fault of the book is that it is incredibly brief. It would have been nice to get a few more animals to say no to build up the suspense a bit more as a read-aloud, but even the littlest of readers will understand the idea that friendship can come from unlikely places.

Reviewed by Jill O’Connor, Merrill Memorial Library, Yarmouth