Bramble and the Hardest Word: A Spring Story About Letting Someone Help (Ages 3-7)

Spring has come to Windy Hill, and Bramble the hedgehog is the one everybody comes to. He mends things. He carries things. He is very good at helping. Then the rain comes - days and days of it - and one morning the bank above his little green door gives way. His friends arrive at once. "We'll help," they say. And Bramble hears himself answer: "No need. I manage." So he digs alone, all day. He hides the broken doorway when anyone walks past. And at night the door will not shut and the cold comes in. Until a very small mouse arrives holding one very small stone - and Bramble has to decide whether saying yes is a thing he is brave enough to do. A warm spring read-aloud about the hardest word there is, for ages 3 to 7: fifteen full-colour watercolour spreads, the same friends from Bramble and the Runaway Acorns and Bramble and the Gift With No Name, and an ending where somebody finally lets himself be helped.