'Hug' by Jez Alborough is another one of those books you just have to have on your bookshelf (along with all the other Jez Alborough books)!

As there is only one word in this entire story 'hug' the pictures are extremely important to enable you to understand its meaning. The story is set in the jungle. All of the animals in the jungle have someone to hug - the elephants, tigers, snakes etc, except for one lonely young monkey. The monkey wonders round the jungle coming across the family groups (mummys and their offspring) of animals who are all hugging, each time he comes across another animal he feels more in need of a hug, and gets more and more upset. The elephants set out to help him taking him around the jungle to find someone to hug. The end of the story is a happy one and the monkey finds his mummy to hug.

As there is only one word in this story the illustrations have to be very good in order to get the point acorss, to show the emotions felt and they are. They are colourful and come alive as you read and talk to your little one about the story. Of course you don't have to say just one word, you can explain what is happening as you read. You can make up your own little story, and that is one of the delights of this book, encouraging you and your little one to share in the excitement of storytelling.

This book can be purchased as a board book or as paperback and their is also a gift set with a toy monkey. The paperback has an RRP of £5.99 and is published by Walker books.