Spike

Whoever heard of a hedgehog without prickles?

Spike, a little hedgehog, has always had impressive prickles. But one morning, after a particularly scary dream, he wakes up completely bare! Oh no!

Feeling very embarrassed, he goes in search of something to cover himself, from a paper lampshade to a tea cup to a very stinky sock. But nothing stops the other animals giggling at him. Poor Spike! Then he discovers a big bunch of balloons, which takes him across the world and ends in a very satisfying POP! and a very prickly party.

About the Author

Jeanne Willis wrote her first book when she was five - a slim volume about cats written in pencil and stitched together with a painfully blunt needle so that it looked like a 'real' book. After that, there was no turning back. Having been fired from her Saturday job - selling cowboy boots on the Kings Road - for chewing gum, and after a brief career as a reptile vet's assistant, she worked as a copywriter and had her first picture book published at the age of 21 (which she wrote whilst pretending to be busy creating adverts for cognac).

She has since written over 300 books and has won several awards, which are arranged in the attic where she works, along with her collection of caterpillars, pink-toed tarantula skins and live locusts. Jeanne has a keen interest in Natural History and has lost count of the number of species featured in her books, including everything from slugs to sloths. She is currently into corvids - especially Nosy Crows.

Jarvis is the illustrator of Poles Apart and I'm In Charge. He wants the books he creates to be very personal, and particularly loves the nature of children's books, what they can do and how they can be kept and loved as little treasures.