One Snowy Night

Author : M Christina Butler
Illustrations by                    : Tina Macnaughton

Age range recommended : 3 -7 years

Theme : Christmas, snow, friendship, giving and kindness

Opening lines –

The cold wind woke Little Hedgehog from his deep winter sleep. It blew his blanket of leaves high into the air and he shivered in the snow. He tried to sleep again, but he was far too cold. Suddenly something fell from the sky….

… B U M P !

It landed right in front of his nose. It was a parcel, and it had his name on it.

Little Hedgehog opened the parcel as fast as he could. Inside was a red woolly bobble hat… hedgehog size!

Introduction and Synopsis –

Just as the cold winds were getting too harsh for Hedgehog, Father Christmas send in his gift -  a warm, soft, bobblehat. His prickles render the hat useless for him so the generous hedgehog gifts it to his friend rabbit, who in turn, gifts it to his friend, beaver and finally in this manner, the hat ends up with fox. The fox dons the hat and goes out searching for supper when he finds the poor little hedgehog buried under a pile of snow, rendered numb with cold. Fox puts the hedgehog in the wooly hat and takes him to his friends. With hedgehog warm and snug in the hat that had now doubled up as a blanket for him, he falls fast asleep even before the others had a chance to tell him that it was the hat that was originally his’!

Why did my caterpillar and I like this book?

ME -
It’s an adorable story. There are lots of reasons you should read the story. It’s a perfect Christmas story, to be read aloud on a cold, snowy night, or even otherwise. There is sharing, giving and kindness, all of which perfectly encapsulate the spirit of Christmas. The book is richly illustrated, beautifully detailed and the touchy-feely soft hat makes its appearance on each page. It introduces to kids the idea of hibernation (“What’s a hedgehog doing out at Christmas time? He should be fast asleep!”).  A very interesting aspect of the story is the relationship shown between the rabbit and badger, and badger and the fox; these animals don't generally get along well with each other. It is seen in the surprise shown by the fox when he is gifted the hat - ‘Time to be nice to each other!’ smiles the badger to the puzzled fox. It is charming!

MY TINY CATERPILLAR -

It is a touchy-feely book so that is the first thing that caught her attention. The Little Hedgehog with his baby features and generous heart charmed her heart. When she saw the fox wrapping up the hedgehog in the hat that originally was meant for him, she gave a warm, satisfied smile. Kids really love to see kindness all around! :-) That, I guess, is what clicked with us in this story.

Online link -

We found this you tube link to the beautiful story. 

The cocoon rates it -

4/5

We cannot think of a reason to not like the book. There are many endearing books written on the spirit of Christmas, but this one stole our hearts. The book is a little wordy, yes – but the author has spaced it out enough in the pages. We would highly recommend the book especially in the 3-5 years age group.