Publisher: UCLan
Released: 1st of September 2022
Lily has a stammer. The signal between her brain and her mouth is all messed up - and it's getting worse.
When a video of her practicing her class presentation is uploaded onto YouTube - head thrust forward, eyelids fluttering, lips stretched wide - Lily's nightmare begins. Cyberbullying, kids at school whispering, even best friend Mia laughing behind her back. Lily's confidence takes a nose-dive and she can only see one way out: run away to Dad in Scotland and start all over again.
But Lily quickly realises that running away isn't the answer - that her stammer will follow her wherever she goes... HOW TO BE MORE HEDGEHOG is about friendship and family and finding the courage to speak out.
What I Have to Say
This book was in different ways: cute, emotional and powerful. It had lots of animal facts with different illustrations of hedgehogs at the start of each chapter, which was just adorable and Lily was such a sweet character who was really easy to emphasise.
It was emotional because of the things Lily went through, some parts I actually wanted to cry because of how cruel the other children were. Even at the start of the book when the adults were just talked to her, I wanted to yell at them because they kept interrupting her and talking over her. It was heart-breaking.
And it was powerful. Just seeing her learn to be brave and to put herself out there, to be more hedgehog was so beautiful. And it didn't have the ableist notion that she had to cure her stammer in order to get there.
A must for any child with a love of animals.
5 stars
My thanks go to UCLan and Netgalley for providing me with this copy for review.
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