The Girl and the Hedgehog Family

Eight-year-old Lily enjoys exploring the quiet garden behind her house, dressed in her mustard-yellow raincoat and red wellington boots, with a notebook for sketching her discoveries. One breezy morning, she finds a mother hedgehog curled under the big rhododendron bush, with three tiny hoglets nestled beneath her belly. From then on, Lily returns after school to sit on an old stone bench and watch the family from a respectful distance, drawing their cream-tipped spines and twitching noses, and writing in her notebook: "They need peace."

When her neighbor Mr. Green arrives with pruning shears and a rake to tidy the messy corner, Lily must find the courage to speak up. She shows him her sketches and explains that the hedgehog family needs a safe, undisturbed place to grow. Mr. Green sets down his rake and listens, and together they begin to change not only the garden but the whole neighborhood, visiting neighbors to explain why wild creatures need quiet corners and privacy, just as people do. This gentle tale by Aysel Banu YAVUZAL can be read on Masal İzle and follows Lily as she learns that being a good neighbor means listening, speaking up for those who cannot speak for themselves, and making room for wild families.