Bad Badger - by Maryrose Wood

About the Book

Septimus is not good at being a badger. He adores the sunset. He dreams of going to Venice. And he lives alone in a charming cottage by the sea. He's not unhappy with his tidy, solitary life, but there are times when being so bad at badgerdom makes him wonder if he's even a badger at all.

When a gull of very few words lands on the windowsill, Septimus leaps at the possibility of friendship. However, his new confidant soon goes missing and Septimus is bereft. Determined to find his best--and only--friend, he ventures into new territory and encounters a cast of surprising characters. Can Septimus be as brave and bighearted as he'll need to be to find Gully? Or is he really a bad badger after all?

Bad Badger is a young middle-grade novel about badgers, gulls, and learning that staying true to yourself means knowing who you are to begin with.

Book Synopsis

For fans of Odder and Skunk and Badger comes a heartwarming story of an unlikely friendship between a gull and a badger.

Septimus is not good at being a badger. He adores the sunset. He dreams of going to Venice. And he lives alone in a charming cottage by the sea. He's not unhappy with his tidy, solitary life, but there are times when being so bad at badgerdom makes him wonder if he's even a badger at all.

When a gull of very few words lands on the windowsill, Septimus leaps at the possibility of friendship. However, his new confidant soon goes missing and Septimus is bereft. Determined to find his best--and only--friend, he ventures into new territory and encounters a cast of surprising characters. Can Septimus be as brave and bighearted as he'll need to be to find Gully? Or is he really a bad badger after all?

Bad Badger is a young middle-grade novel about badgers, gulls, and learning that staying true to yourself means knowing who you are to begin with.

Review Quotes

"A tender friendship tale with a luster all its own."
-- KIRKUS, Starred Review

"The spirit of Frog and Toad is very much alive in this tender account of two friends who become committed companions"
-- BOOKLIST, Starred Review

"Detailed black-and-white illustrations with textured hatching and soft smudging add a visual complement to the text's cozy appeal and give it an old-fashioned feel."
-- THE BULLETIN OF THE CENTER FOR CHILDREN'S BOOKS

"Deceptively simple, exceedingly smart, and lovely to eye and ear alike, this is a delightful little book. Some will say, 'They don't make 'em like this anymore, ' but I say, 'They never made them like this, and I'm glad they started now.'"
-- A FUSE #8 PRODUCTION, An SLJ Blog

About the Author

Maryrose Wood is best known as the author of The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place, the acclaimed middle-grade series about a teenaged governess and her three raised-by-wolves pupils. She's published young adult novels, too, as well as 2020's Alice's Farm, which was an NCTE Charlotte Huck Recommended Book. Maryrose taught fiction writing at CUNY-Lehman College and NYU's Gallatin School, and she is proud to serve on the faculty of the Stony Brook University's Children's Literature Fellows program. She lives in Southern California.

Giulia Ghigini was born in a small town in the industrious and somewhat dreary northern Italy. She's always enjoyed drawing, and as she didn't particularly shine in anything else, she sensibly thought to just keep going. Giulia lives and works compulsively in Milan, Italy.