Hug Hug!

It's been a while my Internet friends, hasn't it?!  Maybe it's because spring has sprung its annual feeling of rebirth.  Maybe its because I am sitting in the library trying to kill some downtime.  Or maybe it's just because I decided to stop being lazy with my blog.  Whatever the case may be, I'm here.  So let's ease back into this thing with a basic board book...

THREE PROS

*Definitely serves its purpose as a loving wind-down book that isn't too sappy or lame for even the most musclebound padres

*Who doesn't love a good hug -- assuming it's coming from someone/something we love (or at least vaguely know)

*While this might not be true in real life, there's an ultra cute and cuddly quality to illustrated owls that I often forget when rattling off my list of top ten most adorable animals

THREE CONS 

*A lot of these "hugs" are highly unlikely, especially the way the seahorses and penguins get down

*While it's always amusing to make butt jokes, I could have done without the bears hugging each other with their rears

*Has the boilerplate human ending to an animal book that isn't so much bad as it is blah

ONE DAD'S OPINION

I'm probably being a little generous in my rating of this middle-of-the-road publication by giving it a Borrow, but I flipped a glass and it came up half full.  On the one hand, Lorie Ann Grover's work does nothing to advance the genre and can feel about two pages too long at times.  On the other hand, Rebecca Malone's illustrations are generally pleasing to the eye and the book itself serves a purpose if you don't have a ton of soothing works on your kid's bookshelf.  Checking it out from the library and then returning it a few days early seems to be the right course of action for this one.                             

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