Scorch, Hedgehog of Doom 
Written by Cate Berry 
Illustrated by Margherita Grasso 
Page Street Publishing/Page Street Kids 
July 16, 2024 
Ages 4-8 

Scorch, the class hedgehog, longs to be a ferocious hedgehog, horrifying those around her with her viciousness, but the world only sees her as cute and adorable. Scorch pulls out all the stops to make everyone see her ferocity, like practicing chokeholds and cartwheel kicks. Scorch puts all her effort into terrifying the students, but each ferocious display is met with choruses of “Aw!” Eventually, Scorch learns that her cuteness is “forged in fire” (p. 20). Scorch sees that she doesn’t have to choose between ferocious or adorable. She can be “ferociously adorable” (p. 24). 

Cate Berry’s engaging writing keeps readers entertained as Scorch struggles with how she wants to be seen compared to how others see her. Berry uses contradicting words, like “cute” and “ferocious,” to show the difference between Scorch’s perspective and the outside world’s perception of her. Berry further emphasizes this by showing Scorch vow to horrify the world in direct response to being called cute. Margherita Grasso uses bright, candy-colored art to aid this emphasis by utilizing perspective changes. Her adorable cartoon style depicts Scorch conquering the dangerous wilderness while the class sees her simply running around her tank. In the end, Berry’s words and Grasso’s art show that Scorch doesn’t have to fit into one box or another; she can be “KILLER cute” (p. 22). With beautiful art and a fun story, this book is perfect for a storytime about identity, hedgehogs, or class pets.