Hot+Hippo

HOT HIPPO



Patrick Voelker Publisher: Little Brown and Company Paperback: 32 Pages Language: English Age Range: 4-8  Mwenye Hadithi is a pen name used by Bruce Hobson. Mr. Hobson grew up on a 10 acre patch of land in the African bush. During his childhood he developed a love of animals which can be seen in the books that he writes. Hobson is originally from Kenya and now resides in Nairobi with his wife and family. Hot hippo is a story about a hippo that is living in the safari that is sick and tired of always being in the sun and eating dry grass. He spends much of his time looking at rivers and ponds and envying the fish that are allowed to swim in the water. He then goes to the almighty creator who in this book is named Ngai. He asks Ngai if he might be able to live in the water with all of the little fishes. At first Ngai is adamant about not letting the hippo live in the water, because in this safari hippos are meant to be land animals. But the hippo keeps asking Ngai if he can live in the water. So, Ngai finally agrees to let the hippo go in the water on the conditions that he does not eat any fish and that he must come out at night so he makes sure he has not eaten the fish. After this, the hippo is overjoyed and goes to the river where he has longed to go. I chose to review this particular book because I, myself am very interested in animals and animal life, and I know a lot of young students are as well. This story is somewhat of a creation story for how hippos ended up in the water which is also a very creative and interesting way to look at nature and wildlife. It also instills the message of to be persistent and not to give up if you do not succeed at first, when the hippo is first asking Ngai to go into the water. Overall, I thought this was a very good story and a creative explanation of why hippos are in the water. The two most relevant literary elements in this book I believe are the illustrations and the character development. The illustrations in this book are very large and most of them take up both pages, and they are a visual representation of what is going on in the text, which can be very useful for kids just learning to read, the illustrations are also very colorful and intriguing. The character development in this book involves the main character, the hippo who is on a quest throughout the story is a very likeable character that you want to succeed and he is a good representation of perseverance and going after a goal, which is an incredibly valuable lesson for young readers.
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 * “ **Hot Hippo” By Mwenye Hadithi, Illustrated by Adrienne Kennaway
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