Hugging Hour (review)
Buy Issue for $25 at JHUP- Hugging Hour
"I am an orphan, Kip!" says Drool sadly if exaggeratedly after her parents deposit her for a night at her grandmother's. She's reasonably cheered up by Grandma's "hugging hour" ("Grandma and Drool hugged for one whole hour"), by playing with Kip, Grandma's "house chicken," and by dinner ("First we'll have fried ice cream, then a marzipan shortcake, then we'll have some porky-pine chocolate truffles, and for dessert there are Belgian waffles"). While her anxiety never entirely dissipates, by the time her mother and father come to collect her, she's already begging for a return visit. Though viewers may not immediately grasp the initially unexplained backstory that makes this Drool's first overnight, the book deftly manages a certain matter-of-factness in the face of her seesawing experience, as she reels from tearful longing for her parents to hungry consumption of Grandma's luscious indulgence; there's therefore reality about a youngster's experience of separation but also a reassuring certainty that the grief is merely a momentary response to strangeness. Soft colored pencil and gentle watercolor suggest straightforward sweetness, but careful viewing reveals the eccentricity behind the adorable exterior, so that on the one hand there are the whimsical hair curlicues and dangling hearts, and on the other there's the overalled house chicken and the mysterious boot hanging from Grandma's pot rack. This could serve as a kind yet comic inoculation for a youngster about to embark on a grandparental overnight, or just an alternative to Waber's classic Ira Sleeps Over. [End Page 207]
