The Hug

“You are sweet,” Ben’s mother tells him as they walk in the field at sunset, “There is no one like you in the entire world!” “I want there to be someone like me!” Ben exclaims, for if he is the only person like himself in the entire world, he wonders, won’t he get lonely?

In The Hug, internationally renowned author David Grossman tells the moving story of the moment when Ben realizes that no two living creatures are alike—not his mother and father, their beautiful dog Miracle or the ants who march side by side at his feet and appear identical—and the loneliness he feels knowing that there is no one else quite like him in the whole world. But just as he is feeling the most alone he has ever felt, he is soothed by his mother’s loving hug. Timeless, touching, and beautifully produced, The Hug is a charming and important work for parents and children encountering the feeling of being different, together