First sentence: Whoa! Oops, excuse me, I had an itch. Your itch was me...and HELP...I can't swim!
Premise/plot: The story opens with a mouse painting the ocean. His easel is set up on a rock...or is it?! Turns out that Mouse's "rock" is really HIPPO. After Hippo saves Mouse from drowning, Mouse volunteers to paint him. But how does a mouse get all of Hippo to fit on his small canvas?! Mouse paints what he sees, and he uses his largest brush to do so. Hippo is delighted--absolutely delighted--with his portrait. Hippo then decides to paint a portrait of Mouse. Hippo paints what he sees--as Mouse did--and Mouse is charmed with the results. (Hippo uses a tiny brush to paint Mouse.)
My thoughts: This book is ALL about perspective. Well, that's an exaggeration. It's equally about friendship, art, and perspective. How do YOU see the world around you? How do you represent what you see on the page--or the canvas--in front of you?
The text of the book is all dialogue. Hippo's words are in black. Mouse's words are in brown. It could work as a traditional read aloud--in the home, at school, at the library. Or. It could be a book a parent and child read together. One could read the part of hippo. The other could read the part of Mouse. I think either way it could work well.
Personally, I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED this one. It made me smile again and again. I thought the illustrations were absolutely perfect. I thought the text was great as well.
Gee--you don't really know how big a hippo is until you try to paint one!Text: 5 out of 5
Illustrations: 5 out of 5
Total: 10 out of 10
© 2017 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews
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