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  • Published: 2 August 2022
  • ISBN: 9780143779063
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 176

Little Tales of Hedgehog and Goat




A charming illustrated chapter book for children six years and up about friendship and finding the magic in the everyday.


A delightful illustrated novel for children about a goat and a hedgehog who meet in a farm field and become best friends.

Goat has a tiny pink shed in a rolling paddock. She likes to stand on top of the little shed and dream of meeting other goats in other paddocks. Sometimes she looks at the sky and imagines the clouds are her friends, especially when they look like goats bouncing and bounding in their sky paddocks. Most of the time Goat is lonely. She wishes the family in the pink house at the top of the hill would find another goat for the paddock. A best friend goat.

Goat is looking at the sky and dreaming of a best friend when she hears a strange squeaking coming from a ball of prickles. It's Hedgehog, and she is crying.

This is the beginning of a most unexpected friendship. Though Goat is a creature of the day and Hedgehog hunts at night, life in their rolling paddock will never be lonely or boring again.

Chock-full of adventure and wisdom, tall stories and tiny poems, Little Tales of Hedgehog and Goat is a charming novel about friendship and finding the magic in the every day. It's the perfect bedtime chapter book that will be enjoyed by child and adult, and all fans of Winnie the Pooh, Wind in the Willows and Snake and Lizard.

  • Published: 2 August 2022
  • ISBN: 9780143779063
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 176

About the authors

Paula Green

Paula Green is a poet, writer, reviewer and anthologist. She has written and edited a great many collections of poetry, including several for children. She has also published two novels for children, The Terrible Night and Little Tales of Hedgehog and Goat. Her poetry collection The Letter Box Cat and other poems won Children’s Choice at the New Zealand Post Book Awards, and she has won a number of Storylines Notable Book Awards for her books for children.

Paula is also the creator of the popular NZ Poetry Shelf and NZ Poetry Box blogs, championing poetry in Aotearoa New Zealand and nurturing its poets young and old, emerging and celebrated. In 2017 Paula received the Prime Minister’s Award for Poetry and was made Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for Services to Literature and Poetry.


She lives near Te Henga Bethells Beach on Tamaki Makaurau’s West Coast with her partner, the artist Michael Hight.

Kimberly Andrews

Kimberly Andrews is a trained biologist and geologist who grew up in the Canadian Rockies. She has lived and worked in New Zealand, Borneo and the UK. In London, she worked for The House of Illustration, whose main ambassador is Quentin Blake. She also worked at the Natural History Museum in the live Butterfly House and also behind the scenes, assisting the curation of mammal specimens in the dry stores.

Kimberly's picture book illustrations have been widely acclaimed. She was awarded Storylines Notable Book Awards for Tuna and Hiriwa by Ripeka Takotowai Goddard (2016) and Song of the River by Joy Cowley (2019).

In 2019, the first story Kimberly wrote and illustrated, Puffin the Architect (2018), won the Russell Clark Award for Illustration and was a finalist for Best Picture Book in the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults. It also won a Storylines Notable Picture Book Award as well as the NZ Booklovers Award for Best Children’s Book. It has been published in five languages, with rights sold to Romania, Russia, China and Taiwan.

More stories followed featuring favourite animal characters from Puffin the Architect's charming world: Hound the Detective, highly commended by Storylines and a finalist for the Best Picture Book Award in the New Zealand Book Awards for Children & Young Adults 2021, and Moose the Pilot, a Storylines Notable Picture Book 2021.

Kimberly lives with her husband and two young daughters in a shipping-container house near Wellington, where she illustrates and writes, and runs her business Tumbleweed Tees, screen-printed clothing featuring her illustrations of New Zealand plants and wildlife.

Praise for Little Tales of Hedgehog and Goat

Little Tales of Hedgehog and Goat just begs to be read aloud. It has the feel of a classic, with a wholesome, timeless, opposites-attract animal friendship...evocatively and firmly set on a New Zealand farm. To top it all off, it’s full of sweet black-and-white illustrations by one of the top illustrators of local kids’ books, Kimberly Andrews. A perfect, delicious package.

Jane Arthur, Good Books, Dominion Post

Children will find this book magical and want to read it again and again.

Maria Gill, Kids Books NZ

It’s surprising just how much meaning can be packed into little tales, as this illustrated novel (ideal for readers aged six and up) reveals. When a hedgehog and a goat become the best of friends after meeting on a farm, the duo soon begins to relay stories of rural life with more than just a little child-friendly philosophy thrown in.

Rural Living

Making the most of what their paddock has to offer, three animals become close friends with the simplest things in life. They grumble and squabble, laugh and dance and talk about all and nothing as good friends do. When this friendship is tested, their bond holds true and a rescue made. Illustrations by Kimberly Andrews begin every tale and are peppered through the stories... I can imagine copies of Little Tales of Hedgehog and Goat staying on bookshelves for years to come as just like its gorgeous characters and setting on a NZ farm – it’s timeless.

What Book Next?

It’s a very rural, New Zealand setting including visits from kaka and pukeko, which kids will enjoy. Good for children learning to read bigger books, from 5 and up, with illustrations to break up the text. The last story is a triumph of friendship. A little treasure.

Ann Kilduff, Wairarapa Times-Age

Little Tales of Hedgehog and Goat is by Paula Green, illustrated by Kimberly Andrews (Puffin). * A chapter book of interlinked stories with the most charming characters. Reminiscent of The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse but with a distinctively Aotearoa New Zealand setting and flavour. A lonely Goat discovers a sad Hedgehog and an unexpected friendship is born. They problem-solve, argue, make up, dream and dance. Along with a young girl, Aroha, and the other farm animals, they are captured in delightful drawings (see the dancing horse!) by Kimberly Andrews. The stories are full of poetry and imagination. Perfect to read aloud when you’ve got those in-between times or independent reading by those newly confident readers.

National Library: Our Best Children's and YA Books for 2022

It might be "the most boring place in the world" but it's home to Goat, Hedgehog and a girl called Aroha. Sweetly simple stories by poet Paula Green, whimsically realised by illustrator Kimberly Andrews. Perfect for what the late John McIntyre, of The Children's Bookshop in Wellington, called "L-plate readers".

Ann Packer, NZ Listener 50 Best Kids' Books

I love the soft gentle pace this book has. It is perfect for those readers who are looking for a story that is caring, quietly amusing and full of friendship and looking out for one another.

Louana McCormack, Read NZ - The School LIbrary

Renowned New Zealand poet Paula Green has created a delightful, charming chapter book for 5–8-year-olds. This unexpected friendship, full of adventures, kindness, and wisdom, will warm the hearts of kids and any adults who might be reading it to them.

Carole Beu, Ponsonby News

[A]n illustrated story brimming with adventure and wisdom. Whimsical illustrations by Kimberly Andrews add to the charm of this gentle novel.

NZ Booklovers

Awards & recognition

Storylines Notable Book Award

Awarded  •  2022  •  A Storylines Notable Junior Fiction Book

NZ Booklovers Award

Shortlisted  •  2023  •  Z Booklovers Award for Best Junior Fiction Book

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