School for Woodland Creatures by Lauren Castillo

November 28, 2025

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Hello, Lauren Castillo! I’m so, so happy you’re here today to celebrate School for Woodland Creatures, the third book in the Our Friend Hedgehog series. What did it feel like to spend time in Hedge Hollow again?

Lauren Castillo: Thank you for having me, John! I’m thrilled to share a little bit about School for Woodland Creatures with you. It felt GLORIOUS to spend my days back in Hedge Hollow. I had missed my friends, and with all the heavy things happening in the real world, being with them helped me feel at peace.

Imagine you’re booktalking School for Woodland Creatures to 150 second graders. What do you share with them?

Lauren Castillo: I would ask: Who wishes they could attend a school in the forest taught by animals?? If so, this book is for you! In School for Woodland Creatures, the friends decide to start their own school in Hedge Hollow, and each friend teaches a subject that they know a lot about. Can you guess who teaches what?

Please finish the following sentence starters:

School for Woodland Creatures’ illustrations were, as usual, an absolute joy to create. For this book I actually drew the art on my tablet in Procreate. It was fun to use a new tool, but with the added challenge of creating the illustrations to look like they were made the same way as books 1 and 2 (with ink and colored pencils)!

The paperback editions of The Story of Us and A Place to Call Home are being released July 14, 2026, the same day that the third Hedgehog book comes out! I’m very excited that readers will now have the option to purchase the book in paperback or hardcover. I hope with the release of paperback editions, even more readers will have the opportunity to meet Hedgehog and all of her friends.

John Schu, you should have asked me why it took me so long to make a 3rd Hedgehog book! The answer is this busy little bee right here.