This endearingly odd and clever book is a pantomime in two acts, set in the countryside. In Act One, three hedgehogs go out in search of food and gather a feast of apples from an orchard. A farmwoman discovers the theft and sends a posse after the hedgehogs, but to no avail, because they are hibernating by then. In Act Two, it is spring, and the posse sets out again, this time finding the hedgehogs. Just when it looks like curtains for the tiny creatures, the farmwoman discovers something that turns the accused into heroes.

The third picture book by Spanish author Javier Sáez Castán, this is the first of his books to be translated into English. Because the illustrations play the starring role in this book, with the text providing support, I suspect that nothing was lost in Toronto writer Elisa Amado’s translation. The paintings are beautiful and, with their warm pastel colours and soft textures, are well suited to a preschool audience.

There is plenty for adults to appreciate here, too, with a humorous mix of art styles (impressionism, surrealism, and a little Beatrix Potter) and some clever word-play. In Act Two – the justice section – the pictures contain phrases in foreign languages (mostly Latin), necessitating several consultations of the glossary at the end of the book. Some phrases are puns, like one printed on the club dangling menacingly over the hedgehogs’ heads that reads “suspended sentence.”

Ultimately, though, this remains a children’s book, because readers who search for context won’t be able to make much sense out of the tale. The three- to five-year-olds for whom the book is intended will be more likely than older readers simply to accept the slightly bizarre story’s events as they unfold.