The Hiccupotamus

Silly rhymes and cute pictures, but the story is nothing special. The main character doesn't even solve his own problem!

This book is a good example of Fantasy because it is about a character that has the hicups and trys to get rid of them, but the character is a hipo making it unrealistic.
Media Used: Color Pencil
Age Appropriatenss: Primary

This is a really fun book. Its rhyming theme will help fledgling readers understand phonics and different sounds. Hiccupotamus tells the story of a hippopotamus and his quest to get rid or a pesky case of the hiccups. The author's wonderful sense of humor will charm children and adults alike. My

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personal favorite part is the cast of characters and their biographies at the back of the book!

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This is a story about a hippopotamus who has the hiccups. The hippopotamus goes through the story and tries to find a cure, but then all these crazy things happen. I thought the story was cute for younger children, and they like the rhyming sequence. One could use this book in the classroom to

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teach about rhyming, or just to read for the joy of reading.

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This is an excellent rhyming story of a hippopotamus that gets the hiccups. His friends get very annoyed by the hiccups and try everything imaginable to get them to stop. In the end the hippo gets rid of his hiccups and gives them to his friends. Very cute for preschool age children.

When the main character has the hiccups it has to find help from it's friends to stop the hiccups.

This one is fun to read...there are a few tongue-twisters along the way, but the rhyming is great!

Goofy mayhem in the animal world when a hippo gets the hiccups. A silly rhyming book whose greatest joy lies in the wordplay.

This book used creative ways to incorporate rhyming into the story. For example, the author wrote, "They ran near a rhinoceros, with minty dental flosserous." Even though the author used and spelled words incorrectly, he made sure the rhyming words were used in a way that could still easily be

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understood by a child. The pictures were also a great source for reading comprehension in this book. The author of this book had great creativity when it came to teaching children the concept of rhyming.

Summary: The book started with a hippopotamus who could not stop hiccuping. As he came near a yellow hippopotamus, he hiccuped and made the yellow hippopotamus spill his cakes. The angry yellow hippopotamus chased after the hiccuping hippopotamus. As they two hippopotamus' came towards a centipede, he hiccuped again and tripped the yellow hippopotamus into the centipede. Both animals were now angry. They both then chased the hiccuping hippopotamus towards a rhino that was flossing his teeth. As he hiccuped again, all animals became entangled in the floss. Therefore, all three animals thought of ways to help the hiccuping hippopotamus to stop hiccuping. After they finally got the hiccups to stop, the other animals got the hiccups.

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Hiccupotamus
“Hiccupotamus” by Aaron Zenze is a silly book about a hippo that can’t get rid of his hiccups. The book is illustrated in bright colors that will intrigue young readers. They are big just like the hippos hiccups! The book is a simple story and only has about one sentence on each

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page and the rest of the page is the illustration. The text uses nonsense words to rhyme. For example, “One day we saw an elephant with cakes of green and yellowphant. He tried to tell her hellophant….” As a fluent reader I see that “hellophant” is meaning hello with “phant” added for rhyming purposes; however, I have concern that young readers may get hung up on these words. The writing is silly and organized through the hippos thinking “And then at last-a miracle!” that his hiccups are gone, but then as readers turn the page, all the characters in the story are hiccupping. This is a silly ending that will more than likely get some laughter. One feature that I thought was fun, at the end of the book there is a “Cast Bios”. There is a small picture of each character in the book with something written about them. “The part of Hiccupotamus was played by veteran hippo actor Hank Polowski. Due to a paralyzing fear of fish, some of his scenes in this book were performed by a crew of stunt doubles”. I just felt it was a fun way to end the book. The big idea of this story is to tell a story of the hippo who tried to get rid of his hiccups.

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Too silly for words, but hard to dislike this story of a hiccuping hippo and his effect on the other animals. Impossible rhymes--but when you do it consistently, it somehow succeeds. I suspect the author is good at reading this one aloud.