Hello friends, and Happy Groundhog Day! To celebrate, we read Groundhug Day, written by Anne Marie Pace and illustrated by Christopher Denise, a delightful tale of five animal friends.

Bunny, Squirrel and Porcupine are all over at Moose’s house, helping prepare for the latter’s big Valentine’s Day party in two weeks. Moose is excited to have absolutely everyone over, until Bunny points out a slight hiccup: tomorrow is February 2nd, and if Groundhog comes out of his hole and sees his shadow, he’ll go back to sleep for six more weeks, missing the party entirely! The four friends try to quickly come up with a plan to spare him from seeing it, but they get distracted planning, and don’t realize they’ve talked through the night – and the sun just came up. Finding that Groundhog has already retreated back into his hole, the friends surmise that he hides from his shadow because he is afraid of it. They invite him on a day of shadow-related fun to help him, and Groundhog ventures out to enjoy the festivities. The others are sure they have cured him of his fear… only to find that he was never afraid at all (he just doesn’t like the cold). Promising his friends that he’ll be at the party in spirit, they celebrate the rest of “Groundhug Day”, and let the furry fellow get back to his nap.

Very cute! I loved the combination of the the two holidays; it makes this book perfect for a beginning-of-February read. And within the sweet and jovial story, there’s some nice lessons about friendship – especially that sometimes, friends have their own things going on, and can’t always do the things you want to do. It doesn’t mean they don’t love you, or are any less your friend. It’s a smart lesson told in a fun way, and wrapped up with some adorably warm, personality-filled illustrations. The length is good, and JJ enjoyed it a lot! A fun way to kick off February, and Baby Bookworm approved!