Little Tales of Hedgehog and Goat by Paula Green, illus. Kimberly Andrews. Pub. Puffin, 2022

Hedgehog and Goat are unlikely friends since goats are essentially day animals and hedgehogs run the night, but they become friends because both are lonely on a typical NZ farming environment.

Goat does what goats do and has a unique dancing style. Hedgehog sleeps and snuffles around but together they can make and tell stories. So they do.

Each story is headed by an aphorism or a saying that has a general truth such as “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth”, “Actions speak louder than words” “All that glitters is not Gold” and my favourite ” out of the frying pan and into the fire”. There are others of course and each is applicable to a story by Goat and Hedgehog about their relationships with other animals like Horse, kaka, cat, dog, pukeko and humans.

All the stories are linked and beautifully illustrated by Kimberly Andrews who gets the characters right and portrays a unique NZ scene.

Easy to read, short, large font and a lot of fun. A good read-a-loud for juniors and a bed time story.