Auralee Arkinsly

Darling Hedgehog becomes nervous and begins to hunt for her parents when they haven’t returned home from a walk of the night before, and she falls down a hole into Miss Fox’s lair. Thus begins an unusual escapade for little Dumpling, er...Darling!

Darling Hedgehog: Goes Down a Foxhole, by Auralee Arkinsly, is an interesting, attractively illustrated book intended to teach children about stranger danger.

Darling’s adventures with Miss Fox will create many laugh-out-loud moments for children. Imaginations will soar when they see Darling dangling from a leather strap in Miss Fox’s convertible, especially when Darling almost loses her tutu! However, they will also be concerned about Darling being hurt as she hurtles down the street anchored only by the strap.

I wondered about Darling accepting gifts from Miss Fox and going places with her without knowing Miss Fox or having her parents’ permission. As the story progresses, we see a much more sinister side to Miss Fox. I realize that some aspects of the story couldn’t, in the interest of the age group, be more thoroughly explored. However, I felt it may leave a more precocious child with more questions than answers, and maybe even some fear, too-not necessarily a bad thing, but not easy to explain, either.

Darling Hedgehog is an engaging book intended to teach children about stranger danger. I found the pictures to be irresistibly cute and aptly illustrated the story. Overall, a good book for children.

I received Darling Hedgehog: Goes Down a Foxhole from Prism Book Tours. However, I was under no obligation to post a review.… (plus d'informations)

What I think you should know:
Darling Hedgehog goes Down a Foxhole is an illustrated early chapter book. It is aimed as an early reader chapter book. While each page contains beautiful pictures it also contains a full page of words.

What I think about this book :
The illustrations on the book were fantastic, they were colorful, and eye catching. My sons enjoyed looking at the pictures more than they did reading the story. For my seven year old the book was a nice reading length, he liked the story and caught on that Fox was a bad guy much earlier than his four year old brother. My four year old has an attention span for reading longer than most kids his age and he was to the point of being ready to skip to the next page a few times. The book did give us a nice starting point to remind of stranger danger and predator behavior. I would give this book three stars, and my sons, the intended audience wanted to give the book 5 stars so I am going to meet in the middle with 4 stars.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Celebrate Lit, this in no way influenced my review. All opinions are my ow… (plus d'informations)

I will say that I liked the cover of the book. It definitely will grab children's attention. I don't think I've seen a children's book about hedgehogs before. The concept of the book is good, but for me fell a little short. The author writes a story about stranger danger but missed the mark in several areas. It didn't make sense for the hedgehog to dress up in a tutu and then most of the story try to find ways to repay Miss Fox for the gift.

Miss Fox did share some fun things she likes to do which the hedgehog thought was interesting. They get in a car and go places together which I cringed at. The conversation about eating insects was intriguing and darling seemed to want to please Miss Fox way too much. The ending I think would scare little children. This book would be better suited for older children for parents to read and discuss together. The book is not something I can recommend because it has many flaws in it starting with an instant admiration for Miss Fox. I didn't think the author presented stranger danger in a good way for children to understand. I read the book twice to see if I could gleam the concept but I didn't. The highlight for me was the beautiful illustrations which was done very well.

I received a copy of this book from Celebrate Lit. The review is my own opinion.… (plus d'informations)