How to Send a Hug, it’s sweet but feels about 20 years too late

Don Quixote putting a stamp on the windmill. I mentioned that metaphor to my wife and she gave me the look that basically said ‘what the heck am I rambling about?’. I get that sometimes. How to Send a Hug is a very cute illustrated book that seems like the sibling to A Penny’s Worth. Unlike that book, the MacGuffin in How to Send a Hug is a letter, and it’s not the letter Q. This is the postal service, as in I have to send this eBay package to its buyer-so I’ll see you in two hours. I know, I should buy a scale here and print my own postage, but back to the book!

How to Send a Hug says all of the things that give young kids and parents the feels. It’s about a young girl, Artie, that loves giving hugs, but enjoys hugging her grandmother most of all. Unfortunately, the two live very far apart from one another. They talk and video chat often, but it’s just not the same. Thankfully, the little girl has discovered how to send a hug. She breaks the fourth wall in this part of the book and speaks directly to those young readers.

Under her bed, Artie’s got two boxes, one with letters and the other containing art supplies. She pulls out the art supplies and starts writing and doodling a letter to her grandmother. Once it’s done she puts a stamp on it and shows readers the various ways that the letter first starts its destination. She sees the post office building and thinks of all of the hugs that are being delivered and the ways that they’ll get transported there.

Letters, as any old-school devotee of the postal service knows, are a reciprocal thing. You usually have to give one in order to get one and if you don’t write one in return when you receive one then it’s seven years of bad luck. When Artie gets a letter from grandma she’s overjoyed and it even smells like roses.

How to Send a Hug is a very sweet book that feels about 20 years too late. One time when I was teaching a group of second graders I asked them who had ever received a letter or postcard in the mail. Only one student out of 25 said that they had received something of a personal nature like that.

Our own children, who are 11 and 13 years old, have only received a couple of letters in their lifetime. They certainly enjoyed getting those birthday invitations, but it was probably easier to manage the RSVPs through the respondents answering via some online platform. In a way, it’s similar to ebooks and physical books, except it’s a look further down the road. We obviously love to read but haven’t moved to ebooks yet. I love the tactile feel of papers as I turn them, much, in the same way, letter folks enjoy the thrill of opening up an envelope.

I want to like How to Send a Hug, and as a book, it’s certainly very cute with a down-home, folky vibe. It’s just that it reminds us of that penny book we reviewed recently. Moreover, with the negative connotations that some folks have with the USPS they might be more apt to read an illustrated book on Comcast or Southwest Airlines before How to Send a Hug.

How to Send a Hug is written by Hayley Rocco with illustrations by John Rocco and is available on Little, Brown and Company, an imprint of Hachette Book Group.

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