Over the summer we were thrilled to find that yet again a small family of hedgehogs had taken up residence in our tiny garden. With hedgehogs increasingly under threat I couldn’t say no when Patricia Smith got in touch to see if I would review her book Hedgehog Hotel and I’d like to thank Patricia for sending me a copy of Hedgehog Hotel in return for an honest review.

Hedgehog Hotel is available for purchase here.

Hedgehog Hotel

Funny, true stories about a family who are hedgehog carers and their interactions with these colourful, delightful little creatures. The stories include: Bedroom Shenanigans, The Diary of a Bald Hedgehog, The Three Bears, Two Sisters and a Witch and Isabel the Magnificent.

My Review of Hedgehog Hotel

A series of hedgehog based real stories.

If I’m honest, I hadn’t expected to be as captivated by this book of real life hedgehog stories as I was. There’s a joy behind the writing that is infectious so that I ended reading Hedgehog Hotel being glad for the twenty plus hedgehogs that have found their way to the author’s hedgehog hotel to be bathed, fed and nursed back to health. There’s also an attractive quality to the prose so that Patricia Smith’s love of nature comes through in her vivid descriptions.

The individual hedgehogs are lovingly described. I enjoyed Izzy’s ‘teenage strops’ for example. And although this is a collection of stories about hedgehogs and their individual characters and quirks, I thoroughly enjoyed meeting the humans, not least because I felt I’d been given a glimpse into the life of a caring family doing their bit for the environment which gave me a hugely positive feeling.

There’s a surprising amount of practical advice and hedgehog information woven throughout the book, from the number of heartbeats a hibernating hedgehog might have to the difficulty of sexing a hedgehog and the inconvenience of having a hedgehog up your trouser leg!

However, the aspect I enjoyed most in Hedgehog Hotel was the inclusion of some wonderful photographs that accompany the accounts. They bring to life the characters we meet and are quite charming.

Hedgehog Hotel would make a good book for an older child who is beginning to express an interest in wildlife and for anyone, old or young, interested in these feisty, curious little creatures. I liked it.

About Patricia Smith

Patricia Smith worked for fourteen years in technical support and as a computer programmer before changing career to help young people to improve their numeracy and English skills.

She has enjoyed writing stories all of her life and her first novel Time Split, which made several best sellers lists, was published in 2011. This was soon followed by her Distant Suns stories, Islands – The Epidemic and more recently the long awaited sequel to Time Split, Time Split – Briggs.

For more information, visit Patricia’s website. You’ll also find her on Twitter @ForTheLoveOfSF and Facebook.