London and Rex have teamed up again (Wiggle Waggle, not reviewed) to produce a captivating bedtime tale for the preschool set. As in Wiggle Waggle, London employs echoic words to describe how various animal mothers hug their young, drawing a correlation between them and how readers hug their own moms. The text is primarily a repetition of the same format for a variety of animals. Each two-page spread is devoted to a mother/child couple. The question “How does a (bunny/otter/monkey) hug?” is located in the upper left-hand corner of the page. The answers are a collection of toddler-pleasing tongue twisters, e.g., “Snuggle wuggle, snuggle wuggle” for a bunny and “Pouchety boing! boing! boing!” for a kangaroo. The whimsical refrains lend themselves to a boisterous read-aloud session, encouraging readers’ enthusiastic participation. The majority of the spread comprises an extreme close-up of Rex’s realistically drawn animals: loving mothers cradling their blissful offspring. Clean lines mark the illustrations and the colorful, crisp images are situated against a pure white background. The tale concludes with an open-ended question, asking readers to describe how they hug. A very simple format that works extremely well either as group read-aloud or an individual story time for young children. Besides providing a cuddly bedtime story, London’s tale also aids little ones in identifying a broad assortment of familiar animals. (Picture book. 2-5)
