A spring gift is coming

ㆍ Drawing a warm world brought about by a sharing heart
No two children in the world are alike. Even if they are identical twins, they have different personalities and different likes and dislikes. Each little difference becomes individuality and a special aspect of the child. Just as children are curious about their own appearance and sometimes like it and sometimes hate it, hedgehogs also dislike their sharp thorns. But the hedgehog goes one step further and wonders if he could do something cool with the thorns he found distasteful. After thinking about it, he decides to make gifts for his friends out of thorns. The hedgehog gives gifts to all the animals in the forest, and the animals who receive the gifts grow in their hearts to want to give good things to the hedgehog. The desire to give something good to my precious friends spreads throughout the forest like the warmth of spring.
〈Spring Gifts Are Coming〉 contains the idea that the true meaning of a gift is that both the giver and the receiver share the joy of being precious to each other. After reading this book, you will find yourself smiling and excited as you imagine the happy face of the person receiving the gift before giving it. You will also think about what the real gift is that makes you special.ㆍ Naturally capturing the change of seasons and the flow of time
In “Spring Comes a Gift,” the images of animals rejoicing that spring has come are vividly expressed. Animal friends ask how they are doing in the winter and hug each other warmly. When I see them sitting under the warm sunlight, sharing snacks, and playing together, I feel reassured by the truth that spring will definitely come after the harshly cold season passes. It seems like they are quietly telling children who cannot meet their friends or even share snacks due to the COVID-19 pandemic that spring will definitely come after winter passes.
But after spring passes, winter comes again. The hedgehog wants to help his animal friends stay warmer in the coming winter. Time passes without stopping as the hedgehog remembers his friends' winter and prepares gifts from spring. While carefully knitting each stitch, the hedgehog must have been thinking about his friend who would be wearing a scarf. The reason why a gift that is prepared with so much care and over a long period of time is more valuable and touching is because the respect that it has become that much more precious is conveyed through the gift. The animal friends who received the gifts would have been able to spend the long winter warmly preparing gifts for the hedgehogs during the winter and imagining how happy the hedgehogs would be when they wake up in the spring and see the gifts. Young readers of this book will also think about how to spend winter wisely while watching the beautiful seasonal changes that flow naturally.

ㆍ A new work by Makiko Toyofuku that delicately depicts the hearts of children.
In her previous work, Ballerina Rabbit, Makiko Toyofuku captured the fear and excitement of starting for the first time and the feeling of trying something you like even if there are difficulties in the story of a rabbit learning ballet. 〈A Spring Gift is Coming〉 is Makiko Toyofuku's latest work, and like her previous work, it looks into the hearts of children and delicately depicts them through children's favorite animal, a hedgehog. Hedgehogs are smaller than other animals, but their shy red cheeks and facial expressions that change like those of a real child whenever their emotions change are eye-catching. Even the sharp thorns of a hedgehog are transformed by Makiko Toyofuku into a soft shape that you will want to run her hands at least once. The warm colors and beautiful scenery of the forest expressed in watercolor make you want to look at the painting over and over again. Additionally, each animal's appearance is expressed in great detail, making it fun to look at.