The Giant Hug

There aren't many books that make me tear up. Perhaps it was the illustrations. Perhaps it was the incredibly sweet story. Perhaps it was because I recently dropped my only child off at college. Or, perhaps, it was a combination of all of the above! Regardless, The Giant Hug (2005) by Sandra Horning (illustrated by Valeri Gorbachev) is one of the sweetest picture books I've read in a long time!

The Giant Hug unapologetically launches right into the story, which is the best way to start. Hey, call me Ishmael! Owen, the young pig you see on the cover, decides he wants to send his grandmother a hug -- a real hug! But how do you send a live hug through the mail? And what would happen if you were to try? Owen finds out when his mother takes him to the post office. Owen starts out by giving Mr. Nevin, the postman at the counter, a giant hug. Mr. Nevin delivers the hug to the next postal employee in order to get the hug to its destination.

I won't read this book once to my kindergartners. In fact, I'll probably read it several times! This would be a great book to help them with remembering sequence and order. After reading it once, I would go over the steps required to mail a letter. Then perhaps we would go over the order in which the characters got their hugs. We could do it in reverse to find out how Owen got his return surprise. The next time we read it, I'll stop before turning the page and ask, "Who's getting a hug next?"

The Giant Hug will definitely have a place in my own classroom library!