Ouch!

A picture book featuring hedgehogs that is lower on my list of favorites is Ouch! by Ragnhild Scammell, illustrated by Michael Terry. It has cutesy cartoonish illustrations. The main character, Hedgehog, and the goat who solves the problem in the end are pretty charming, but their faces don't convey much expression. Also, the landscape is rather green & fruitful for a time when a hedgehog is going to sleep for the winter. The text and the illustrations match, but the pics don't add any depth or nuance to what's going on in the plainly told story.

The plot is based on the old folk idea that European hedgehogs are able to collect fruit and carry it away impaled on their quills. In Ouch!, an apple falls onto & sticks to little Hedgehog. She wishes to get into her nest to hibernate, but now she can't because she won't fit. Other animals offer advice, but when she tries to scrape the apple off, she always ends up with something more stuck in her quills. It's not particularly believeable, even for a fanciful picture book. The best part is when Hedgehog already has stuff all over her quills (Nuts? Really, you think nuts would stick?) and a small piece of blue paper flies through the air. Little Hedgie runs around to avoid it, but it floats right onto her back & sticks! Some days everything just gets all up in your quills...

An interesting facet of this text is the 26 page length. Most picture books are standard at 32 pages. The original UK publisher, Little Tiger Press, added in black & white activity pages in between the full color spreads. Good Books, the US publisher, has left these out.

An Amazon search shows that Scholastic has picked this text up & published an audiotape along with it, changing the title to Apple Trouble. I wonder why the title change?

Why Sally Snert?

The origin of Snert. When my boyfriend and I were brainstorming names for the new hedgie, we got onto to snout, and sniffling, and piggy type names. After this little burst of naming, I came out with Snert, as a name for a male hedgie. They are constantly sniffing and burrowing their little cold cute nosies into you. Well, mine both do! Snert sounds snoutish, and very like what hedgehogs do, just snerting around. However, it didn't fit newbie exactly. She's tiny & thin, and of course, female, so adding Sally, an old-fashioned name that goes nicely with Felicity, seemed to be the answer.

Initially I thought I created Snert, but Google & Wikipedia say no. Remember the Hagar the Horrible comic strip? Yes, truly horrible, but Hagar's dog was named Snert. What's more, the short name for Dutch pea soup is snert! How wonderful! Can't say that I wish to eat pea soup in June, but come Fall, I will make some snert for myself, and leave a bit unseasoned to serve the hedgies. So Sally Snert may enjoy her very own snert in the future. :)

The Happy Hedgehog Band

Right, let's combine hogs and children's literature. A sweet, sweet picture book entitled The Happy Hedgehog Band (1991 in UK; 1992 in US) is one of my favorite pic books featuring hedgies as main characters. By Martin Waddell of Little Bear & Farmer Duck fame, and illustrated by Jill Barton. Harry the hedgehog makes himself a drum, tum-tum-te-tum. When he plays, deep in the heart of Dickon Wood, Helen the hedgehog hears him, wants to join, and so makes a drum and diddle-diddle-dum. Helen wears cherries in her quills, and a few hang down like earrings to really bring the cute. Two other hedgies join, and their names do not begin with H, thank God. So, the happy hedgehog band plays on, Tum-tum-te-tum, diddle-diddle-dum, ratta-tat-tat, BOOM!

Other animals arrive: a variety of them, some quite large, with surprised looks on their faces, and yell, "STOP!" Here is also the perfect place to stop a read aloud, or a child or group of children reading on her/his/their own, to predict what will happen next. Were these human characters, the hogs would surely be too loud, and that's a possibility. It's definitely worth some while to discuss what could happen at this turning point.

Oh, ok, I'll spill. The other animals want to drum too! But, apparently, hedgehogs are the only animals who know how to make drums. Enterprising Harry suggests sounds each animal can contribute: the pheasant can hum, the owl hoot, the mole clap, the bee buzz, and on & on. Then everyone plays together, and "the dog who was lost in the woods just danced." On the last two double page spreads, the sound effect for each animal is incorporated into the illustrations for some terrific phonological awareness fun! I especially like the spider saying a quiet weee as she swings on her web.

Unfortunately, this text is out of print. But it is just another example of the excellent children's literature that Candlewick Press continues to offer us.

The naming of hogs is a serious business

Newbie now has a name! It will be revealed at the end of this post. I started with this list, in no particular order:

• Truffle
• Mocha
• Fern
• Flower
• Sally Snert
• Heidi Hog
• Lucy
• Millicent
• Piglet

I liked all of them and all went well with Felicity. Some just didn't fit Newbie's personality, though. I threw out Millicent & Lucy. Millicent is too cold & formal for her, and Lucy too boring. Mocha, while fitting nicely with her looks, made her sound too edible. Then Heidi Hog went because I just didn't like it enough.

So now I had the short list:

• Fern
  
• Flower
  
• Sally Snert
• Piglet
• Truffle

Then, I passed the short list to The Boy, my son, to select the final name. It didn't take him long before he decided on......

SALLY SNERT!

So, how do the hedgies get along?

Felicity HufflePuff Hedgehog, the original hog, is a snuggler and a sweetie. She has been to visit a classroom of Baltimore City first graders, where she allowed everyone to handle her at least a bit! By the end, she had had enough, and turned into a little ball of prickles and a nose. Nonetheless, I was a little anxious about how she would react to Newbie, the latest acquisition to the household.

I put Newbie into the bathtub for a temporary home. Safe from escape, as she can't get up the sides, easy to clean up her little poops, safe from kitty-cats who might think she's a snack. (I'm looking at you, Annabelle.) Then, I brought Felicity to the bathtub, as neutral territory. Felicity has been in the bathtub twice in her life, as we do baths in the sink. How did it go? Lots of sniffling, and a bit of huffing and puffing and spiking up, but overall wonderfully well!
What was I worried about?

Tubing, the sport of hedgehogs

She is tubular! African hedgehogs enjoy sticking their little heads into empty toilet paper tubes, or specially made tubes of craft foam that are the same size. They shake their heads about, flip over, roll around, walk around, trot around, all while wearing the tube. It is ridiculously cute. Some hogs will tube, then scoop up a bit of handy small stuff, like cat food or pelleted bedding, and then sling the bits around. Newbie is a confirmed tuber at 2 months old.

New baby hedgehog!

There is a new addition to the household! A tiny baby African hedgie, chocolate pinto female, currently installed in the bathtub for safety. Felicity, the original hog, is getting along with her just fine, as most female hedgehogs do. However, I am cautious about putting Newbie (that's a placeholder name; she'll get her real name soon) into Felicity's cage, because that has been strictly Felicity territory. There can be fights and biting. Newbie is vastly different in size from Felicity, so I am definitely feeling protective.

Newbie is an explorer. A tuber extraordinaire! As you can see from the pictures. She is amazingly social for a tiny thing. The breeder says that her litter seemed to have exceptional eyesight, and she does seem to see better than Felicity does.

Needless to say, I LOVE her. She and Felicity have been tubing in the tub together! See next posts.