There was a hippopotamus
Who hiccupped quite-a-lotamus.
And every time he got’emus. . .
. . . He’d fall upon his bottomus.
Wordplay is one of my favorite things, and it abounds in this clever picture book by author-illustrator, Aaron Zenz. When hippopotamus gets hiccups, his friends employ various “helpful” methods of assisting him to overcome them. (His friends include a yellow elephant, and a rhinoceros using dental flosserous.) After much trial and error, hippo is cured. And then. Hic! His friends come down hiccups themselves as shown in this page, rendered in Prismacolor pencil:
Inside Scoop:
Multi-talented Aaron Zenz has worked as a fine artist, graphic designer, multimedia designer, and illustrator. He’s also the author of one of my favorite blogs, Bookie Woogie, which he creates with his children. It's a very entertaining and informative view of what kids think and say about books as they're reading them.
the HICCUPotamus
Aaron Zenz, author-illustrator
Dogs in Hats, publisher, 2005
(also published by Scholastic book clubs)
