Hattie Hippo
PreSchool-K–In each of four episodes, a young hippo encounters a self-imposed mishap. When ballerina Hattie leaps through the air, she overshoots the waiting arms of her rhino partners. She eats all the food while her guests go hungry at her tea party. In her wading pool, she splashes the water away in a cannonball jump. During hide-and-seek, Hattie falls asleep in her hiding spot. In short, punchy rhymes, Loomis has created an enthusiastic, resilient, and endearingly oblivious heroine. Surrounded by copious white space, the warm watercolor-and-ink cartoon illustrations are funny and mesh well with the sparse text. Young children will both laugh at and identity with Hattie.–Rachel G. Payne, Brooklyn Public Library, NYCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.