Hug Paperback – Picture Book, August 11, 2009

What a touching book. Featuring only three words, this book still manages to carry a lot of emotion! This was the perfect choice for reading to my children in their early developmental stage. I also teach volunteer English classes for pre-k kids here in Japan, and often read this book to them. They follow along very well, and seem genuinely interested in whats going on. For this purpose, I had to copy the pages into a larger format. I really wish this came out with an oversized edition, because it is an important book for young kids to see and understand, and a sure bet for the classroom.Although the book only has three words, there is still a lot of teaching that can be done with this book. Showing how inflection can reflect our emotions. Teaching the names of different animals. Teaching colors. Simple reading skills. This book is a wonderful opportunity for kids to learn with a book that is wholesome, and not needlessly zany. A great choice.

This was a favorite book for all of my kids because the main character says “hug” over and over as he looks for his mom. The pictures are delightful and the story of the lost baby monkey finding his mother with the help of helpful jungle friends is so sweet.

The pictures of the animals are adorable! The have much feelin in their expressions. My grandson loved this as a bedtime story. He loved saying "hug" on each page. Then I would exclaim, "Bobo!" & bed respond, "mama!" I loved that time with him.He's 11 years old now.

I just purchased this adorable book for a friend’s 2 year old daughter and she loves it! I used to read this book to my 1 and 2 year old toddlers when I was a preschool teacher. It was a circle time favorite! Really cute book with great illustrations.

My family LOVES this book. I like to gift it to all the babies and toddlers as they have their birthdays. I have to maintain a list to make sure I don't gift it to the same child twice! Once the children have heard the story a couple of times, they can read it to you. Very appropriate for children of single mothers since it is about the love of a mother and her child. Adorable illustrations, beautiful story.

We bought this for our 2 year old at the insistence of my mother-in-law. I think it's such a cute little story, but I find it hard to read to my daughter. The story is in the pictures, and I don't think she quite comprehends what's going on (and all that is said aloud is "Hug"). This might be for older kids, or maybe I'm just approaching the story wrong. I still love the story, which is why i rated it 4 stars, but for those parents that are looking for something to "read" to your kids instead of just look through, you might want to look elsewhere.

We didn't think my 9 month old daughter would understand what was happening in this book because it didn't have words and the pictures showed emotions we thought she wouldn't quite grasp. Not true at all. After a few readings she had very strong reactions -- she would start crying or getting upset during the 2 pages when Bobo is upset because he has no one to hug. She completely understood why he was upset and deeply felt his emotion. We became more careful reading those pages and quickly turned to the next page when mom arrives. Once she got over this initial reaction after a week or two, she loved this book. She loved the build-up of emotion, and she loved when Bobo's mom came running to the rescue. But the reason I really love this book is that a few weeks ago, because of this book, my daughter started saying "hug!" and demonstrates it all the time by hugging two toy animals together, or two books, or two anything. When we pick her up and hold her close she says "hug!" When my husband hugs me, she says "hug!" It is such a joyful word to hear from her, and such a great concept for a now-1 year old to understand, both the emotion of hugging and the idea of two separate things coming together for a purpose and then separating again. It has also given us great insight into how much she understands about the objects around her -- e.g. we have seen her hug a toy polar bear to a book about a brown bear -- she understood that they were the same ("bear") and so hugged them. So wonderful.

I was an early childhood educator for 25 years. Teaching children to notice unwritten as well as written words and emotions was something we incorporated into our curriculum. This book covers it all. With very few words you can capture so much more by looking and responding to the emotions shown throughout the book. Perfect for ages 1-5