Hug Stories

Snuggle up together and read these hug stories with your little one! Hugs are sure to follow 🙂 These sweet stories are perfect to read with preschoolers. While none of them are holiday stories, they are great for Valentine’s Day and all year-long!

7 Hug Stories

1. Nobody Hugs a Cactus by Carter Goodrich–

Hank is a grumpy cactus who sits in his pot all alone. He looks out at the desert and watches as tumbleweeds, cowboys, lizards, and other creatures go by. Hank does not like being disturbed and he does not want a hug. He yells at everyone to leave him alone. When they do, Hank finds the being alone has become lonely. A hug sounds pretty nice now. He devises a plan to make friends with Rosie the tumbleweed. Hank grows a beautiful flower to give her. The next time Rosie tumbles along in the wind, Hank offers the flower. Rosie happily excepts the flower and hugs her new friend, but now she is stuck to Hank. They find that stuck in a hug with a friend is a great way to be stuck!

2. Hug Machine by Scott Campbell–

My coworker gave this book to my son and oh my gosh does he love it! This story is about a little boy who calls himself the Hug Machine because he loves, loves, loves to give hugs. He hugs everyone and everything, including porcupines and blue whales. This book is full of humor and heart and ends with a special hug just for the Hug Machine. Check your library for this sweet story.

3. Do You Want a Hug? (a Disney Frozen book) by Kevin Lewis–

Join Olaf in a game of hide-and-seek. This is a fun interactive book, where the reader gets to “play” with Olaf. Olaf’s joy is contagious as he asks the reader to give him a hug. Olaf runs splat into the book page and bonks his nose. He mistakenly thinks that the reader is playing a game and that he can’t get a hug until the game is over. Olaf suggests Leap Troll and Ring Around the Reindeer before settling on hide-and-seek. All right, no peeking as Olaf hides. I hope you can find him because Olaf really wants a hug!

4. Tiny T. Rex and the Impossible Hug by Jonathan Stutzman–

Tiny T. Rex’s friend, Pointy, is a sad and Tiny wants to give him a hug, but his arms are not very big. Tiny goes around asking his family for advice. While everyone offers ideas, none are quite right until Tiny asks his brother and sister. They tell him to practice. So Tiny puts everyone’s advice together, makes a plan, trains hard, and practices hugging. Kids will laugh as Tiny mistakenly practices on a cactus and the leg of a flying dinosaur! In the end, Tiny hugs Pointy and Pointy declares that it is the biggest hug ever.

5. Can I Give You a Squish? by Emily Neilson–

Kai, a little mer-boy, loves to give hugs, which he and mama call a squish! He hugs all of his ocean friends with exuberance. But one friend, a puffer fish, doesn’t want to be squished! Kai learns that everyone shows affection in different ways. Turns out puffer fish likes to give fin-bumps! This is a sweet story that helps little ones understand that we have to respect our friends’ boundaries.

6. Group Hug by Jean Reidy–

In this story, a hug between a slug and a beetle turns into a giant group hug, as more and more animals find themselves in need of some comfort! Preschoolers will love the pictures in this book and enjoy seeing their favorite woodland animals. The author’s rhyming text gives a quick overview of each animal before they join in the group hug. Along comes bear and suddenly, all of the animals are scared. Will anyone hug bear? Slug will! Soon all of the animals are back in the group hug 🙂

7. I Need a Hug by Aaron Blabey–

A little porcupine wants a hug, but no one dares hug these spikes! Poor porcupine. But then porcupine meets snake, who isn’t scared of porcupine’s quills. Finally, it is hug time, and what a lovely hug it is! There is a friend out there for everyone. Preschoolers will enjoy this short story and expressive illustrations.

I hope you enjoy these stories as much we do! Just so you know, to help cover the costs of this site, I joined Amazon’s affiliate program. So if you buy the book through one of the links on my site, I get a may small percent from the sale (at no additional cost to you). Thank you for your support! Happy Reading 🙂

More Books!

• Kindness Stories — 4 books about being kind to others.

• Valentine’s Day Books — 14 stories to read for Valentine’s Day!