“When the hippo came to Havelock,
no one quite knew what to do.
There are no hippos in New Zealand.
Well, only in the zoo.”
So starts this funny little story about what trouble a hippo might actually cause if he were let loose in a New Zealand town.
I’m liking
Scott Tulloch’s illustrations are adorable and funny, and oh-so-NZ: you could picture yourself in many of the locations this funny hippo finds himself. The simple story is fantastical, it could never really happen but it is something kids from approximately 3-6 will enjoy.
I like it when unexpected words appear in children’s books, one such word and concept you can explain in this text is ‘posthumous’.
Things that made me go hmmmm
I happen to have a low, low threshold for toilet humour. When certain words appear, I just can’t stand to have the book in my house. This book might be allowed to stay, however, I have to point out that you will need to read the words ‘bum’ (which I always read as bottom!) and ‘poo’.
The metre and rhythm in the rhyming text doesn’t flow flawlessly. Sometimes you’ll get an a, b, a, b rhyme, followed on the next page by an a, a, b, b rhyme. And the changing syllables in some lines mean at times, you might stumble reading the text aloud.
The conclusion
Stories of ourselves in our own backyard – that’s the point of this book, and lots of children will find it fun.
