Thursday, January 19, 2017

Hippopotamister

Hippopotamister. John Patrick Green. 2016. 84 pages. [Source: Library]

First sentence: The old City Zoo was falling apart. No one was buying tickets. No one was managing the office. The habitats needed repair. The monkeys had no energy. The lion's man wasn't very regal. The walrus's smile wasn't very bright. And in the center of it all lived Red Panda and Hippopotamus.

Premise/plot: Red Panda decides to leave the City Zoo and get a job in the outside world. He comes back every few months to tell Hippo how wonderful the outside world really is. One day, Hippo tells Red Panda that he has decided to leave the zoo too. Can Red Panda help him find a job too?!

My thoughts: I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED, LOVED this one. I thought Red Panda was great fun. But I really LOVED Hippo. Seeing the two friends try dozens of jobs--with varying degrees of success--was fun. (It was a lot more fun than I expected it to be!) I really loved the ending as well. The illustrations reveal that Hippo is great at many, many things. He can wear MANY different kinds of hats well. But Red Panda has his role to play as well!

Loved the text. Loved the illustrations. I believe the target audience is the same as a more traditional early chapter book. But this one is a graphic novel or comic book.

If you love the illustrations, he shows how to DRAW both characters at the end of the book.


© 2017 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

1 comment:

Suko said...

Becky, the title of this book drew me right in. I'm glad you enjoyed this so much. Great review!