How Do You Hug a Porcupine? by Laurie Isop – ESSENTIAL

Isop, Laurie How Do You Hug a Porcupine?, illustrated by Gwen Millward. Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2011. $15.99.  PICTURE BOOK.  Hugging animals is easy.  Bunnies and dogs and cats and cows and horses and even giraffes are easy to hug.  But Isop’s book explores how to possibly hug a porcupine.  This is a great book: the writing is good, with a rhyme-scheme that flows nicely; the illustrations are cute and fun to look at; and youngest readers can learn about more exotic animals (like the hedgehog, ostrich, and yak).  This book does not try to do too much, but it is a deserving winner of the Cheerios New Author Contest.  I will be looking forward to new books coming out by Laurie Isop, especially if Gwen Millward is the illustrator--the two go perfectly together.  Pre-K, EL(K-3) – ESSENTIAL. Brent Smith, Reading Teacher.