"Hug" by Jez Alborough

“Hug” is a book with a vocabulary as limited as its audience’s. There are three words in the book: “hug,” “Mommy,” and “Bobo.” That’s all it takes to tell the story of a lonely chimp who just wants a little love. Yet that simplicity belies -- or maybe drives? -- the book’s deep emotional insight: that friends can be a conduit to family, and family can remind you of the importance of friends. It’s a story where very little is said, but very little needs to be in a story this primal. It’s the perfect thing to read to somebody who can’t talk, but can communicate.

My youngest kid, J, is 17 months old and has more teeth than words. Just this morning she said “uh oh,” and, judging by our reaction, she may as well have done a backflip. We’re in that magic time when any moment is a new glimpse of what she can do and what she can make you feel. 

J took a while to glom to books -- she was too busy swatting them to read them -- but in the last few months she’s become a reader, and “Hug” is a nightly fixture.

In it, Bobo, the chimp protagonist, is on a walk through a grassland when he stumbles on various pairs of animals hugging. The sight moves him. “Hug,” he says with a chipper smile at the first pair. He sees another. “Hug,” still with a smile. But after seeing a few hugs Bobo’s body language changes. He hunches over. He bites his lip. He puts his hand to his face pensively.

Bobo is sad.

Even if you can’t talk, you know Bobo is sad. Just look at him! “Hug” doesn’t need a lot of words to tell its readers something because Jez Alborough’s illustrations do that work. Faces do that work. Faces are some of the first things its readers understand.

Who knows what J really understands, but I’ve convinced myself she understands this transformation from happy to sad because she too transforms from happy to sad. It helps, too, that parents can’t help but change the way they say “hug” as the book goes on. We ape the emotion on Bobo’s face by changing our voice, showing kids that the way you say something has its own metatextual meaning. Because of this, “hug” -- the word and the book -- takes on an increasingly large emotional range the more you return to it, inviting you to find new ways to get across its story of loneliness and salvation.

About that salvation: Bobo hitches a ride with a couple elephants and mopes while seeing yet more hugging lions, giraffes and hippos. Bobo gets fed up. Where is the other member of his pair? Where is his hug? He screams “hug” to the heavens, then collapses onto a rock and weeps. He whimpers “hug” and blots his eyes.

Then an answer to his prayers. A cry of “BOBO” from the hills. Bobo runs toward it, screaming “MOMMY” all the way. The chimps embrace. The other animals rejoice.

Bobo is happy.

In his exaltation, Bobo cannot just hug his mom. He knows how good hugs feel. He wants as many as he can get. So, Bobo breaks the species barrier. Until this point, snakes only hugged snakes, elephants only hugged elephants, etc. But now Bobo’s gotta hug ‘em all. The crowd rejoices. Everybody hugs everybody, and you bet they’re saying “hug” while they do it.

J coos when this happens. She hears the excitement in our voices; she sees the excitement on the animals’ faces. And maybe, just maybe, she remembers her mom crying out from down the sidewalk, and what it feels like when they run toward each other for a big embrace. Whenever I see it, I like to think “HUG!” rings out in her mind like an echo of her heart.

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Our copy of “Hug” appears to have come from my wife’s boss. But if this convinced you to get your own copy, here’s a way to buy it. As always, I might make a small commission off your purchase, so careful how you spend your money.

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