The soft illustrations of friendly forest animals trying to encourage and console and help their friend Badger are charming.  And the story is one that so many of us (children and teachers alike) here in the Northwest and relate to — the anxious anticipation in waiting for snow that is not coming.  They come up with all sorts of ideas, from throwing stones at the sky to punch holes in the clouds, to performing a snow dance, to wearing their pajamas backwards.  Nothing seems to work, but throughout Hedgehog keeps trying to remind his friends that crocuses always bloom in spring, and the sun rises every day, and the stars shine every night; though they always come in their own time.  So eventually the band of friends realize that the snow also will come in its own time, and they’ll just have to wait.