The Hedgehog Book: 1

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The story begins with PA Hedgehog explaining to his children about the problems that hedgehogs have in crossing the road to get to the park. Having listened to his father’s speech, Max asks his father how humans can cross the road safely. PA Hedgehog tells his son that he does not know and sets him the challenge of finding out. I mean, that's really the crux of the irritant right there. Barbery spends half of this book droning on and on about how this concierge and schoolgirl are so unseen because of social expectations, and she would have them be redeemed because they are both intelligent and tender. But that's absurd. That's like Good Will Hunting without the dénouement. I'll say it right now, I don't care about Renee, because she's a concierge in a building in France. I read the whole book and I still don't care. Is it because I'm stilted by my class astigmatism? Please. I'm barely middle-class. I grew up in trailers and fertilized lawns for a living. I don't care about her because she is a concierge and has done nothing interesting with her life except sit in her apartment with a fat cat and read Tolstoy. And the ultimate stupidity -- the most absurd thing in this entire book -- is this ridiculous and unbelievable artifice that Renee has to "hide" who she is, because of the expectations of the upper class. As if they're going around with spyglasses on trying to root out concierges who have read too much Marx. What garbage! If I found out my concierge had read Marx, I would (a) not give a shit and (b) avoid her as much as humanly possible, out of fear that she would talk to me in exactly the way Renee talks to the reader in this book: interminably. This is a good story of road safety and overcoming obstacles, which I used with year 3 which they enjoyed and were able to access easily as a class with it being read to them. I think this would be suitable for either year 3 or 4 and could also be used for independent reading and curriculum support in PSHE for things such as road safety and overcoming obstacles.

Whence comes the sense of wonder when we encounter certain works of art?... The enigma is constantly renewed: great works are the visual forms which attain in us the certainty of timeless consonance... Certain forms... return again and again throughout the history of art." Paloma All our family acquaintances have followed the same path: their youth spent trying to make the most of their intelligence, squeezing their studies like a lemon to make sure they'd secure a spot among the elite, then the rest of their lives wondering with a flabbergasted look on their faces why all that hopefulness has led to such a vain existence. People aim for the stars, and they end up like goldfish in a bowl. The Hodgeheg’ is a story about an intelligent hedgehog named ‘Max’. Max lives in the garden of 5A with ‘Pa Hedgehog’, ‘Ma Hedgehog’, and his three sisters, ‘Peony Hedgehog’, ‘Penny Hedgehog’ and ‘Petunia Hedgehog’.

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The New Hedgehog Bookby Pat Morris. Illustrated by Guy Troughton.Part of the British Natural History Collection by Whittet Books. Published in 2006. Then, it’s a little mangled, it’s kind of a jumble, it’s Rough & Tangle and Rouge & Tumble! Writers Evan Stanley & Gigi Dutreix, Aaron Hammerstrom, Daniel Barnes, Ian Mutchler, and India Swift join Ian to bring readers six new heartwarming stories of unlikely pairs. It's only about halfway through that the two threads begin, tentatively, to connect and the real story starts. I've read this book be described as very "French" in its casting of the class divides, but I think that's totally incorrect. The invisibility of people who aren't interesting is universal. The ethic espoused in this book -- that Renee and Paloma are profoundly worthwhile because they are intelligent and tender is unequivocally American. Only in modern western cultures would we say, "oh! how wonderful and individual that you are smart and feel alone! you are a special flower! everyone gets a participation ribbon!" No. A brat who wants to burn her house down and a concierge who has done nothing with her life except isolate herself are not special, no matter how many books they've read. They are every single uninteresting person that I don't want to read books about.

When you set out to deal with phenomenology, you have to be aware of the fact that it boils down to two questions: What is the nature of human consciousness? What do we know of the world? There's nothing #scary about being prepared - so #treat yourself this #Halloween & shop the sweetest #hedgehog calendar around! To start with, pure beauty striking the summer sky, awe-filled respect absconding with your heart, a feeling of insignificance at the very heart of the sublime, so fragile and swollen with the majesty of things, trapped, ravished, amazed by the bounty of the world. This is the story of two misfits who find comfort, eventually, gratefully, mercifully, in themselves and in others. Who reconcile their heads with their hearts, and find a way of being in the world that is bearable for them. This occurs through the intervention of a third character, Kakuro Ozu, who--while he has his own story, his own pain, his own needs--is somewhat secondary to the story.And then, you pace up and down a corridor and suddenly enter a room full of light. Another dimension, a certainty just given birth. The body is no longer a prison, your spirit roams the clouds, you possess the power of water, happy days are in store, in this new birth. Even her opinion on doors, I was fascinated by the way Japanese use space in their lives, and by these doors that slide and move quietly... refusing to offend space. For when we push open a door, we transform a place in a very insidious way. We offend its full extension... An open door introduces a break in the room, a sort of provincial interference destroying the unity of space. As everyone knows, smart people don’t always figure out ways to be happy. This is one of the themes. However, they might just meet someone with a clear-sighted appreciation for hidden beauty, an easy manner, and a rich vein of empathy for kindred spirits. Much of the meeting up takes place late, but is powerful when it finally does. The spoiler police prevent me from saying as much as I'd like.

I've always loved that line from Annie Lennox's Why. This book is about the contents of two characters' heads: Paloma, the 12-yr old suicidal prodigy, and Renée, the 50-something cat-lady concierge. Be careful with these characters, and by that I mean: take care of them, for they are fragile, sad souls in need of understanding and in need, moreover, of someone--anyone--to see through their facades and see them for who they really are. And don't we all need that?Sight is like a hand that tries to seize flowing water. Yes, our eyes may perceive, yet the do not observe; they may believe, yet they do not question; they may receive yet they do not search; they are emptied of desire, with neither hunger nor passion." The world has fallen to the Metal Virus, a manufactured plague that transforms all it infects into robotic zombies at Dr. Eggman’s command. Even Sonic the Hedgehog has been infected, though his speed has allowed him to keep the virus at bay. Now, with the population more infected than not and the virus constantly spreading, Sonic and his friends in the Restoration launch a desperate plan to cure the world: Tails will synthesize an antidote, Amy will coordinate rescue operations, and Sonic will provide valuable data on how to combat the disease… but when things go awry, it all comes down to the last minute!