HOKEY POKEY

Barb the hedgehog loves to dance. Cushion the porcupine loves Barb, but he can’t dance a step. Cushion sets out to find someone in the petting zoo who can teach him a dance he can do. Tally-ho’s foxtrot lesson ends with a squashed tail; Clover’s bunnyhop tutorial ends with a flattened foot; Biddy’s funky chicken class ends with quills in her back. Poor Cushion is despondent until the object of his affection offers lessons. Of course, she has just the right touch to teach him four dances culminating in her favorite: the Hokey Pokey. Wheeler and Bynum have crafted a winning sequel to their Porcupining (2003). Bynum’s digital watercolors and pastels, some spot, some full-bleed, soften this prickly tale of friendship and the dance. Cushion’s rhymed song, which he sings with each dancing lesson, will have the audience humming along. (Picture book. 3-7)