The Prickly Little Porcupine - Jill Horton

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AUTHOR: Jill Horton

GENRE: Children's Picture Book
RATING: 4 stars.

A nice story about self-acceptance. This is the second book in the “The Fast Little Fox & Friends” series but the stories are standalone.

Posey the porcupine feels odd because of her quills. None of her friends has these prickly spines, and she feels left out. Moreover, they are always coming in the way, whether she is playing or eating berries. When she bumps into Tulip Tortoise, the wise tortoise helps her rectify her thinking. She implements this new knowledge and discovers that her quills don’t bother anyone as much as they bothered her.

The story is quite sweet and well-written. Through Posey’s day, we get to see not just what porcupines do, but also how being a prickly animal can be a hurdle in the forest. At the same time, kids will also learn the valuable moral that if we accept ourselves, others will accept us too. Just like charity begins at home, love begins with loving ourselves.

It was also fun to see the friendship across a variety of forest dwellers. Kids are sure to enjoy the animals.

The language is quite easy and perfect for the target audience of 3-7 years.

The illustrations are cute. The only thing that bugged me was seeing a gigantic porcupine next to a tiny tortoise. While tortoises can be tiny too, the proportions seemed off. Minor complaint though. The rest was adorable, with lovely digital illustrations on one side and text on the other. The font is nice and clear, with not more than 6-8 lines per page.

I had read “The Fast Little Fox” earlier this year and quite enjoyed it. This is a worthy continuation to the series. Definitely recommended.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the author through BookSprout, and these are my honest thoughts about it.

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