My Rating:

Titch the Itch is a poignant, yet humourous tale of friendship, unconditional love, and finding one’s place.

Fegan’s Titch the Itch follows the titular character as he searches for friendship and a place to call his own, in this surprisingly touching, yet undeniably funny tale.

Titch is an itch, but not just any itch. Titch is one of those itches that comes out of the blue and sticks around no matter what you do. We meet Titch as he’s living with a large family, trying to find friends. See, Titch is a friendly, loving fella, and all he wants is a friend in turn. But no one wants Titch around. He goes from family member to family member, even the pet dog, and each scratch Titch away right quick.

Titch leaves the family, and tries to find friends elsewhere, but every single being he approaches scratches him away. Titch’s journey takes him all the way to the hospital, where who should he find, but the family he left behind. Father had had somewhat of a rough day, and was a patient in the hospital. Sweet Titch went to Father and gave him a hug, wanting to stay with this person he cared about. Father may have had other ideas, but being a patient in the hospital gave him little choice but to suffer Titch’s affection.

Titch is sooo cute! I feel bad no one wants him around, when all he wants is to be loved and wanted. This story hit a deeper chord for me, with the undertone of not being wanted. I’m sure that’s not the intention of the story at all!  But as Titch goes from person to person, wanting only to be loved and gets pushed away at every turn, it reminded me of growing up. I was that kid no one wanted around. I once was friendly and generous, but, well, you get shunned enough and you shut that down real quick. I guess, for me at least, Titch’s story is one of persisting, persevering, not giving up. These are good lessons, to be sure. It’s still clear, though, that Father doesn’t want Titch around. That left me feeling the story was unresolved. Titch still wasn’t wanted, despite his generous, big heart.

I read this book with my younger cubs, though, and they adored it. They loved Titch, and found his efforts to make friends funny. He’s just so oblivious to the havoc he unintentionally causes. It was rather clear they all took very different lessons from the story than I did.

“It’s just a cool story, ma.”

“It means always be happy, no matter what.”

“Never give up! Never surrender!” (yes, we recently watched Galaxy Quest)

Lenny Wen’s artwork is great. Titch is presented as a translucent furry little monster, so it’s clear no one can see him. Contrasted with this are the bold colours of the rest of the world, and the over the top, exaggerated efforts to dislodge Titch.

This funny, warm-hearted book is likely to appeal to children of many ages.

***Many thanks to TaleBlade for providing a free copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.