How Do You Hug a Porcupine?
Laurie Isop
Illustrated by Gwen Millward

Simon & Schuster
July 2011/ ISBN 9781442412910
Children’s picture book (Ages 3 and up)
Amazon

Reviewed by Bob Walch

Children love hugging animals and in this humorous picture book you’ll find a number of youngsters giving some of their favorite critters a friendly hug. While dogs, cats, rabbits and little pigs are easy to shower affection upon, other animals present more of a challenge.

You have to be a little creative when it comes to giving an elephant, dolphin, giraffe, or ostrich a big hug, but what about a porcupine? Now there’s a challenge!

In this picture book, which won the Cheerios New Author Contest, Laurie Isop tackles the prickly problem with humor and a fun, rhymed narrative. It takes a while to answer the question, but the author does come up with a clever solution to this unusual dilemma!