Bad Badger: A Love Story

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.

Author: Maryrose Wood
Publisher: Union Square Kids
Published: 02/25/2025
Pages: 192
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.88lbs
Size: 8.30h x 5.70w x 0.80d
ISBN: 9781454953456
Audience: Ages 9-12


Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 12/01/2024
Bulletin of Ctr for Child Bks 01/01/2025
Booklist 01/01/2025 pg. 73
School Library Journal 02/28/2025 pg. 1
Horn Book Magazine 05/01/2025 pg. 102
Hornbook Guide to Children 01/01/2025 - Superior,Well Above Average

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.