The Very Best Hug

November 14, 2022
Searching for “the BEST hug,” a child experiences alliterative animalian snuggles, including a “kangaroo kiss,” a “cobra clinch,” and a “hedgehog huggle,” in this picture book search for a just-right embrace. Depicted in turn via Brown’s loosely drawn domestic vignettes, different critters smother and smooch a pale-skinned protagonist during an apparent bedtime routine for an effect both tender and comic. “Nightingales love to nestle” amid the child’s unruly curls, a “skunk squeeze” sees the creature’s black tail tickling the child’s nose, and a rhino “wrestle” unfolds like a pillow fight. “You might not be quite ready to rumble in this rambunctious rough and tumble,” Prasadam-Halls observes in rhyming narration before launching into further suggestions that lead to the child carried to bed by a “meerkat mosh.” But while the monkeying around amuses, it’s a squeeze that emphasizes the value of family that fits “completely right,” making for an eminently huggable ending. Ages up to 5.

November 15, 2022
A child in search of the best hugger takes a bedtime tour of the world's most unusual embraces. In the opening pages of this rhyming picture book, an unnamed narrator asks a curly-haired, tan-skinned child who they think gives the best hugs. At the narrator's behest, the protagonist spends their bedtime routine receiving affection from a wacky cast of creatures, ranging from meerkats to porcupines to narwhals. These animals have a variety of body types, but even those with a lack of limbs still express their love; the seahorse, for example, gives the child a "smooch" right before bathtime, and a grinning cobra offers the child a "clinch," wrapping itself around their leg. Although many of the animals prove to be more prickly than cozy--the narrator points out, for example, the sharpness of bird beaks and porcupine quills--even the snuggliest koalas and bears cannot compare to the best hug of all: a parent's embrace right before bedtime. The use of second-person address combined with the protagonist's beautifully illustrated facial expressions and the buoyant, clever lines of verse render this book a hilarious and whimsical ride sure to delight both children and the adults who read to them. The pictures and text work together to create a clear narrative arc for the protagonist, and though the ending is a bit predictable, it's nevertheless a wonderful payoff. (This book was reviewed digitally.) A delightfully silly celebration of familial love. (Picture book. 3-6)

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February 1, 2023

PreS-K-Spoiler alert: the very best hug is going to come from Mom, of course, but before that moment, the tan-skinned girl with a head full of black curls who stars in this story will go through a monkey mash, meerkat mosh, lion squish, leopard squash, hedgehog huggle, cobra clinch, and probably dozens of other animal grabs that are not only shown in gleeful illustrations but are nicely named in rhyming couplets that flow off the tongue for story hour fun. This is a hoot for sharing with preschool and toddler aged children, who will groan with impatience to get to that parental hug at the end but will also love waiting for their favorite animals: the raccoons that wriggle, the rhinos that like to wrestle, and all the rest. It's inventive fun that educators won't tire of either, no matter how many times it's all repeated. VERDICT With nearly endless variations, Prasadam-Halls has made hugging into a zoo of opportunity for passing the love around.-Kimberly Olson Fakih

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