The Hug is the first Hedgehog and Friends book – a heart-warming, reversible picture book by Eoin McLaughlin and Polly Dunbar. Now a series, the Hedgehog & Friends books have sold more than 200,000 copies in the UK, and been translated into 23 languages.

Introducing Hedgehog and Tortoise – both looking for a hug. Why will nobody hug them?

But there’s someone for everyone…

Faber published this warm, innovative book as a traditionally sized paperback and hardback. But they also released an unusual mini hardback edition – the size reminiscent of the original Beatrix Potter hardbacks.

A true crossover book, The Hug was released in time for Valentine’s Day 2019, and proved popular with both children and adults.

A Hedgehog & Friends sequel was already at the creative stage when the 2020 pandemic hit. With hugging suddenly off the menu, someone joked perhaps the next book should be ‘The Wave’… And While We Can’t Hug was born. As the world started to open up, The Longer the Wait the Bigger the Hug followed, and now The Roar in 2022.

Feels like being enveloped in your very own hug.
— Kirkus

Utterly lovely.
— Guardian

Sometimes all you need is a little TLC, but that’s easier said than done for a prickly-backed hedgehog and a hard-shelled tortoise. With adorable arms outstretched, the two embark from opposite sides of this innovative flip book… until Tortoise and Hedgehog meet in the middle, proving that there really is someone out there for everyone.
— Foreword Reviews

Heart-warming.
— Sunday Times

This is one of Eoin McLaughlin’s first books. Also by Eoin – The Case of the Missing Cake and I Am Not an Octopus – both illustrated by Marc Boutavent.

Published by Faber & Faber, 2019. Polly Dunbar and Eoin McLaughlin are both represented by James Catchpole.