I received a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Super sweet story. Very bright and colorful pictures.

Charming illustrations I can see this book being a hit with my pre-kindergarten students. Very sweet story.

My grandchildren loved this book, and in fact I did too. It will become a firm favourite with us all at bedtimes. The illustrations are lovely and the book captured their imagination and they were still talking about it long after the book ended and how friendship is so important. However, my own daughter (aged 28) still calls them HEGHODGES! instead of Hedgehogs!!!

The Prettiest Flower is a beautifully illustrated story about a hedgehog who loves her garden. She works hard to grow various plants and is upset when she wakes up several mornings to see her garden destroyed. She runs around blaming various friends for its destruction, but she is not correct. By setting a trap Hedgehog is able to determine who the culprit is, but what to do about it?

There are so many topics this book could be used for. Learning about plants (the names of the plants are in the illustrations) as well as gardening would be a good science theme. Of course, life cycles can be discussed when caterpillar disappears and comes back as a butterfly. Then we have the mystery aspect. Coming up with a hypothesis and determining how to find out if it is correct, making predictions, and drawing conclusions will develop critical thinking skills. Of course there is also the character development topics of hard work, compromise, jumping to conclusions, trust and friendship as well as dealing with anger. As you can tell, as a retired teacher, I love this book and will be recommending it to my friends who teach kindergarten and primary grades, as well as to families with young children. The publisher, QEB Publishing, generously provided me with a copy of this book upon request. The rating, ideas and opinions shared are my own.

This is a lovely story with some fabulous images!

The book is easy to follow and it is the kind of book I would have loved myself as a child.

I read it with my daughter and even at her young age she loved the images and wanted to have it read over and over and she pointed out her favourite pictures - a lovely book to read at bedtime - 5 stars!

This picture book has the most lovely and appealing illustrations, as can be seen from the cover. I adored them!

The story begins with Hedgehog who loves her garden. Children will see how carefully she cares for it and will learn about the flowers that she grows. So far, so good, but...one day, the flowers are destroyed.

Hedgehog is very upset. She begins to accuse other animals, all of whom are adorably illustrated, of ruining her garden. From this, children may gently learn that it does not do to accuse others without evidence.

Next, Hedgehog does some investigating, finds out who the culprit is and they become friends. At the end of the story, you will see how the thief is literally transformed!

This book is further enhanced by a section that offers suggestions for adults to help children get the most from the story.

Thanks to NetGalley and Quarto for this enticing book.

This is the story of Hedgehog and her love for gardening. One day, she finds out that her garden has been completely destroyed. She fixes it, only to find out that it happens again the next day. She then goes on a quest to find out who is responsible for the destruction of her garden.

I was pleased with the charming and colorful illustrations, but very disappointed by the story, especially by the communication skills of Hedgehog.

When Hedgehog tries to find who destroyed her garden, instead of simply asking her friends for clues, she goes on blaming, yelling, and accusing every single one of her friends, without ever apologizing afterward. What a terrible friend!

When she finally discovers who is guilty, it doesn't make any sense. The vast destruction of the garden from the illustrations doesn't even start to compare with what the guilty animal is capable of doing. This part was very illogical.

Finally, it feels like the transition between accusation and friendship was too abrupt and not well explained well enough.

Despise the positive ending, I would not recommend this book, as I feel that there are better books about friendship, being sorry, and giving a second chance.

Sweet story. I think kids will enjoy reading the book. Kind of disappointed that Hedgehog didn't apologize to everyone he accused of messing up her garden.... I liked that when the culprit was found out, Hedgehog was a bit more forgiving, but sorry the caterpillar's transformation wasn't explained in the story. I mean, how did Hedgehog recognize caterpillar, if she did't even know where she had gone??? Still, nice enough little tale and I enjoyed the illustrations. Nice job on the critters and flowers!

This is a cute book about a hedgehog that has a beautiful garden. One day she gets up to find that many of her plants have been eaten and she must find out by who. I don't like that hedgehog goes and accuses her friends opposed to asking if they ate her plants. In the end, she makes a lifelong friend. Nice pictures, good message, but the main character could have been nicer and less accusatory.

Great book. I really loved the illustrations. My students would love this book especially the bright and colorful illustrations. I also enjoyed discussion and comprehension next steps. It would be perfect for my first grade classroom. Thanks to NetGalley and Quarto Group-QEB Publishing-for the ebook.

The Prettiest Flower by Anna Shuttlewood is a cute story of one hedgehog’s love of her garden. The Hedgehog is a “Martha” type character who enjoys her work in the garden as well as the beauty that it gives to her and others. It is difficult to see something that you work on ruined by someone else, accidental or not. Young children can relate to this too. The story would have been perfect if the Hedgehog had shown some remorse for accusing others, but for there part the other animals all nicely stood up to her, including the guilty party.

The compromise that is done, I think is the big idea, not the finding the wrongdoer, which is clearly shown. I especially liked that part. My granddaughter loved the ending. In addition, the garden illustrations are colorful and lovely detailed so that my four year old granddaughter and I reread the book just to look at the illustrations. Of course, we wanted to admire that prettiest flower, one more time. Easily could become a preschooler’s favorite read aloud time book.

4.5 Stars – I would have loved to see a heartfelt apology for accusing the innocent.
The publisher through Net Galley provided a digital ARC. I have voluntarily decided to read and review, giving my personal opinions and thoughts.

This is a beautiful book, the art work is literally stunning and pulls you right in. The story is about a hedgehog who lives her garden and when she finds it destroyed blames her friends, but finds out they didn't do it, so she takes it upon herself to investigate with surprising results. This is a lovely tale, it teaches children lots of different lessons and also introduces new words of flowers with pictures to show them. This book has discussions and activities at the end and is really helpful for schools, nurseries or just yourself at bedtime. The only thing I would add would be it would have been a good oppportunity to teach a little about saying sorry or blaming people and tempers, but this is just a missed opportunity more than a criticism.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free e-copy to review for an honest review

5☆ A Charming and Beautifully illustrated Children's Book, mixed with educational topics.

The Prettiest Flower is beautifully ilustrated. It's a charming children's story with important messages about hard work, dedication, friendships, trust, mystery, nature and life cycles.

It's a wonderful short story about a little hedgehog, who adores her garden.
Several mornings she has woken up to her garden having been destroyed.

She is so upset and angry she blames her friends for potentially ruining her beloved garden.

Here is where the mystery element comes in, Hedgehog decides to play detective to discover just who is ruining her garden.

It's here she makes a discovery, that soon turns into a wonderful friendship. But that's all I can say as I don't want to spoil the surprise.

I really liked the extra discussion topics and activities at the end of the book.
It really helps with communication skills.
This gorgeous book can be read alone, with friends, at bedtime, within a group.
It's a perfect read for children aged 4+

I would love to see this book in schools as it can lead to so many extra curricular activities, such as gardening, searching for flowers, developing the senses, science, nature, drawing/art work etc...
I am a qualified nursery nurse and love children's books, the Prettiest Flower truly is a gem of a book that's fun, beautiful to look at, short enough to hold attention and has educational messages.

I highly recommend it.


Thank you to Quarto Publishing and Netgalley for this copy which I reviewed honestly and voluntarily.

LOVED the illustration and story. About not rushing to judge others and friendship. Definitely a book I am recommending our elementary school library and one I am going to get for my granddaughter.

My 3 year-old and I LOVED this book. The pictures were beautiful and she really enjoyed the story. She now wants to read another story about hedgehogs. Though she's a little young to do the discussion questions at the end of the book (she couldn't list specific flowers from the garden) I enjoy this aspect of the book being included.
One thing I will say is at the beginning it mentions "people" coming by and observing Hedgehog's lovely garden, even though there are no humans in this book. I'd look for another way to describe those who walk by as something else, even if it's just "others" or "other animals."
My personal favorite was the way in which she communicated with Mole, and the hat on Duck's head. Tiny details like that made this book so beautiful.

This is a really cute book. The Hedgehog is adorable and the garden is very nicely illustrated.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book, All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Shuttlewood's beautiful story of a hedgehog, her garden, and the lengths she would go through to find out what happened to her beautiful garden is marred only by the fact that hedgehog never apologized for falsely accusing her neighbors and friends. The illustrations are wonderful, and I especially loved the pages that focused on what flowers hedgehog grew. The ending is wonderful.