Calling All Book Lovers!

I really want to play along… but as the working parent of a mobile toddler and wife to a husband who works an opposite shift (leaving us both with single-parent duties when we’re not at work), I haven’t had time to finish a good book in quite a while – I think it’s been since March!  So I am going to regale you today with a tale I read about three times a day – “Hippos Go Berserk” by Sandra Boynton.

Yes.  I am reviewing a child’s book.  It’s no Hunger Games, but I am happy to say, my daughter loves “reading” with me.  So in the spirit of Ready, Set, Read! I am going to take joy in the fact that I’m getting the next generation excited about books, and not just to chew on.  Well, you know, not anymore.  Ahem.

This is a tale of a hippo with a lot of friends.

It starts out: “One hippo, all alone, calls two hippos on the phone.”

Simple enough, but this shindig snowballs into a big bash of berserking.

It’s a really fun counting book, because each page is a new number of hippos arriving to spend some time with their hippo friend.  By the time the group of nine hippos have arrived, it’s quite the party – with 1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9 hippos (and a random tag-along beast) who jubliate All. Night. Long.  This is Raya’s favorite part, because it’s in bold capital letters, so we say really loud that “ALL THE HIPPOS GO BERSERK!”


I can only imagine what sort of party would involve 45 hippos in party hats.  They are dancing on tables, they are drinking, they are taking pictures off the walls… some of them may be streaking?  I don’t know for sure what hippo etiquette is when it comes to nudity.  Actually, I have friends who probably know first-hand about parties like this.  I should ask someday.


But as morning dawns – 
They leave the house in ways that rhyme, 
counting down from groups of nine.  
(Do you like what I did there?)


Anyway, I do really like the book.  It has good rhythm, it’s silly, and it’s a good length for my daughter’s attention span.  This is why I continue to read it several times a day… instead of allowing it to mysteriously disappear.  Ahem, not that I would do that. ;)

Fortunately for everyone (well, mostly for me, but for those of you bearing with me through a kids’ book review) my favorite author, Terry Goodkind has a new book coming out on Tuesday so I should have a real, grown-up book to talk about next month.  But for now…