Review: What a Delightful Book!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 01 24, 2013
I have a confession to make: I don't have any children. Which makes this review from an adult's (albeit a very childlike adult) perspective.Frankly, Humongous Hippopotamus is the type of book I would want for my children if I had any. It's smart, clever, and witty, and it maintains a great balance between facts and the silliness that kids (even adult ones) love. The education factor was a big plus. Personally, I love learning new things (and I did learn new things from this book) and found the presentation to be exciting and learning should never, ever be boring. I wasn't bored and I suspect that parents and kids alike wouldn't be, either.The hippopotamus pictures Michael Wills chose to include are great all on their own - who knew hippopotamuses could be such hams? - but the captions and text he includes with each one makes them all the more fun. My absolute favorite is the 4,000-pound butterfly with the Rocket Split coming in a very close second.The humor aspect is what surprised me the most - only because it's really difficult to be both humorous and witty without talking down to one's audience or resorting to cheap jokes. I'd imagine if it weren't done with skill, parents would probably skip right over it.Overall, I loved this book and plan on keeping on my shelf for when I have kids to read it to. The only thing I would have liked to have seen is for it to have been a little bit longer. Other than that, I have absolutely no complaints and wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to friends and family with small children.