Nobody Hugs a Cactus

Great book for the whole family. I love this book! One of my favorites.

I have probably read this 15+ times to my 5yr old already, and he's been asking for it every night for the past week. It is SO adorable! The artwork and story are captivating, and the ending always makes us go, "Awwww!" I highly recommend this to the parents of girls and boys ages 3-6, and will probably gift a copy of it at the next Baby Shower I attend.

The cover is not something I'm typically drawn to in a children's book. I want all the colors and to know the style of the book from the cover. So when we picked out this book from the library I wasn't excited to read it. But classic case of never judge a book by its cover. We all instantly fell in love with it and bought it before we even returned the libraries copy. My 5 year old daughter laughs and laughs and honestly we do to. It's such a cute book and so humorous. We'll even quote Hank the cactus in daily life sometimes. We live in the desert ourselves so it feels extra charming. Highly highly recommend this book!

Perfectly adorable

I see this becoming a classic. Kids who want to be alone…well, maybe it's a front or maybe they're just not used to having friends. Hank likes being alone in his pot, looking out over the desert. It's perfect. But for someone who's grouchy, he does seem to have friends - sort of. He knows the name of the tumbleweed, a jackrabbit has a nickname for him (not flattering), and a number of creatures pass by with a friendly 'hi'. But when some of these same creatures make it clear he's not considered a friendly cactus, he starts to rethink his moodiness. Maybe they're right. Could he be nicer? Could he have friends? So he does something quite startling and quite perfect. He grows a flower for Rosie the Tumbleweed. And then some unexpected and very nice things happen. It could happen in real life, too; simple acts of kindness have great power. Exquisite pictures by talented author/illustrator Goodrich, who seems to have a good grasp on deserts, dealing with cranky moods, and the good things in life. Great book.

This story is brief on words but large on meaning; simple but effective. We first read it on a story walk at a local park. We liked it so much we decided to buy it.

The lone cactus who doesn’t want to be bothered realizes his mistake when the tumbleweed helps him get untangled from a cup. So he grows her a flower. She hugs him and they are stuck together forever.My 5-year-old LOVED this. He kept hugging me and saying he was a tumbleweed and laughing his head off. I think we’ll be reading this again and again.As a parent, I also like that all of the characters actually are desert creatures, so we can chat a little bit about the habitat.As an adult who would prefer to read kids books that I also enjoy 1,000 times, this one makes the mark. The illustrations are clever and I have to admit- it’s also pretty funny to me.Finally, maybe after we read this many more times the underlying point about helping each other might come through to my kindergartener as well...

Great price. Tells of grumpy cactus that finds friends and finds happiness with friends.