In this rhyming picture book, baby hippo wakes up with a problem. She has the hiccups, and they won't let her sleep. Under the dawning African sun, she walks around her lakebed home and asks for help from an assortment of animal neighbors. Monkeys, a zebra, an elephant, a lion, and an aardvark are just some of the animals that share their own special cures for the hiccups. The delightful illustrations, upbeat rhymes and funny content make this an excellent read-aloud for the whole family. More than fun, it is also educational. The 10 species depicted in this book really do live together in Africa. Better still, the animals' cures are all true-to-life habits particular to each one, so the rhymes help kids learn. To top it off, there are two informative pages at the end of the book. For example (**Spoiler Alert**) baby hippo finally finds relief after walking full circle and back to her mother. In addition to being heartwarming, it's also true. Mother and daughter hippos form strong social bonds among these otherwise anti-social animals. The animals in this book are: hippopotamuses, vervet monkeys, a plains zebra, an African elephant, a cheetah, warthogs, a giraffe, a lion, an aardvark, and crested porcupines. It's a great chance to add some new animals to your child's mental zoo. Everyone knows elephants and lions, but aardvarks and crested porcupines? Here's the verse about the aardvark: Silly, stringy, sticky licker, Aardvark's tongue delves deep inside. "A termite mound stops hiccups quicker Than any other cure I've tried."
About the Author: B.C. Dee has more than a little experience with hiccups, only a little experience with hippos, but did give a bath to an elephant once. Like in this book, the elephant sprayed water playfully--no one should go into an elephant's bath without expecting to get wet. A writer of children's stories since the age of five, B.C. Dee is now published around the world, bringing smiles and delight to readers of all ages. ______________________________________ Isn't it funny that when you have the hiccups, everyone turns into an instant hiccup expert. Strangers will try to scare the hiccups out of you, waitstaff will bring you a cup of water without you asking. In Thailand, I was given a hot pepper by a sympathetic street vendor. In Mexico someone brought cayenne pepper with salt out of a restaurant and into the town square where I was hiccupping. In Kazakhstan one helpful stranger did a good job scaring me, unfortunately the hiccups persisted. Someone else, unbidden, pounded me on the back as if I were choking. I suppose that hiccups are a universal experience that bridges ages and cultures. When my wife was pregnant with our daughter, I felt her belly bounce more often from hiccups than from kicks. Before she was born, Isabel hiccupped so much that we nicknamed her "pipoca," which is "popcorn" in Portuguese. That image didn't fit after she was born--the popcorn was out of the pan. So I started calling her hiccupopotamus. It turns out that there are two books that are called "hiccupotamus," but I can't get my tongue around the syllables in a way that makes me feel like I did something other than mispronounce "hippopotamus." I could either get "hiccup" or "hippopotamus," but not both. Hiccupoptamus conjured both images in my mind at once. Isabel is now three, and she still hiccups a lot, even though she knows at least ten ways to cure them.