Review of HUG by Jez Alborough
Jez Alborough’s HUG is a highly regarded picture book for pre-readers. It was easily my own daughter’s favourite book for at least a year, which is a long time when you’re 18 to 24 months old. She insisted on having it read to her over and over, and it’s probably the first book she ever read on her own.
It’s almost a graphic novel for pre-readers, with each page corresponding to a single panel of a comic strip, and all the dialogue in comics-style speech balloons. It’s the story of Bobo, the baby chimpanzee, who slowly becomes more and more despondent as he sees other baby animals being hugged by their parents, but his parents are nowhere to been seen. The entire book consists of Alborough’s brilliantly playful illustrations and only three words: “Hug”, “Bobo” and “Mommy!” And yet it manages to convey so much raw emotion that my group work collaborators were all practically crying for Bobo when I read them the book. It’s emotion this book is designed to convey to pre-readers. It has the barest wisp of a plotline, which may or may not even register on its intended audience, but more importantly it educates children about emotions: sadness, loneliness, despair, happiness, love and gratitude. All in a tiny board book with only a handful of pages.
It’s on this score that I think HUG really succeeds in its mission. Children identify completely with Bobo as he wanders through the book, desperately looking for someone to hug him. They know what it feels like to feel alone, scared and lost, and Alborough both justifies and tames those emotions and gives pre-readers a safe space to experience them. HUG is also visually beautiful, with engaging and extremely expressive illustrations. It’s not clear that it would work as well as it does without them.