Sometimes the people we love the most, our friends and family members, like to do odd things. Sometimes they have strange hobbies or habits that don't really make sense to us, but we go along for the ride because we care about them and want to be with them. In this picture book a dog goes on a very strange journey with his hedgehog friend. He does not quite understand what the hedgehog is doing or why he is doing it, but he goes on the trip all the same.
Buddy and Earl go exploring
Buddy and Earl go exploring
Maureen Fergus
Illustrated by Carey Sookocheff
Picture Book
For ages 5 to 7
Groundwood, 2016, 978-1-55498-714-6
Buddy has had a long day and he is looking forward to
snuggling down on his bed for a good night’s sleep. Buddy’s people put Earl the
hedgehog in his nice new cage, and then they turn off the light and go to bed.
Buddy closes his eyes and is just nodding off when Earl tells him that he is
going on a trip.
Buddy is very
fond of Earl and does not really like the idea of his friend going off for an
indefinite period of time, but Buddy does his best to be brave and he says
goodbye to Earl and wishes him “Good luck!” Earl then climbs into his exercise
wheel and starts running. He runs and runs and when he stops he sees that the
place he has come to “looks eerily similar to the place I just left.” Which is
not surprising.
Earl is thrilled
when he sees that Buddy is with him in the ‘new’ place. After all, “Exploring
is always more fun if you do it with a friend.” Together they set off to
explore, with Earl’s very fertile imagination leading the way. Somehow, in the
kitchen, they encounter a silvery lake, they eat a feast, Buddy saves a “lovely
lady hedgehog trapped in the jaws of a monster,” and in turn Earl saves Buddy
from another monster.
In this second
Buddy and Earl book, Earl once again let’s his imagination run wild, and though
Buddy is a rather literal dog, he goes along for the ride. Children will find
it not to laugh out loud when they see how Earl takes the most ordinary of
things and turns them into something wonderful. Best of all they will love
seeing how the two very different friends stay true to each other no matter
what.
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