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Torontoist Reads at a Primary Level
Our attention span is short enough at the best of times, and in the middle of a frigid and hectic December (like this one, if you haven’t been paying attention) all we really want to do is read rhyming books about hippos. Fortunately, Sandra Boynton is here to fill all our rhyming hippo needs (which are extensive). Plus, if you’re stuck for gift ideas for all the kids (and immature friends) in your life, you really can’t go wrong with any of her books.
The Belly Button Book celebrates the hippo’s pure, unadulterated love for his (or her) belly button. They frolic on Belly Button Beach and sing belly button songs until winter, when belly buttons go into hiding to stay warm. And if you can look at that sweet little baby hippo saying “Bye bye Bee-Bo” without crying a little, well, you have no soul. Fun Fact That You Will Not Learn From This Book: The Yiddish word for belly button is pipic. You cannot convince me that the belly button isn’t one of the better body parts – I’m with the hippos on this one.
Now, Torontoist’s father is a mathematician, and we’ve always been fairly adept with numbers. But we are pretty sure that we could have been a math genius if we’d been taught to count by strung out hippos. Hippos Go Berserk is one of the great board books of the ages. Though on the surface it appears to be a simple counting book, it is actually a sobering tale of codependency (and possibly substance abuse) and the emptiness that is left when the party’s over. Also, hippos. Going berserk. The title doesn’t lie.