Aaron Zenz

Not only is this book absolutely adorable, it's also well-written and informative. Zenz goes through all sorts of baby animal names, but the rhyme scheme is rock solid throughout and the patterns are varied enough that the text doesn't even come close to be being boring (which would have been really easy to do with what's basically a list). Now let's talk illustrations - all these baby animals are just too cute for words with the variety and cleverness of the text keeping them from tipping show more over into overly precious territory. My favorite spread includes the cria, joey, hatchlings and leveret. The hatchlings and leveret race (just like the tortoise and the hare!) and make additional appearances on the end papers in homage to the classic fable. Zenz's colored pencils keep things soft with very minimal backgrounds and settings really allowing the animals to shine. This also makes it appropriate for the very young, while the informative aspect raises the interest level up through the primary grades - giving this a wide audience agewise. I love the key to what kinds of animals are pictured that Zenz includes at the back since I wasn't immediately able to recognize them all and I'm a sucker for kids books that I learn from.

This worked better for baby storytime than I thought it might - particularly with the addition of some animal noises and actions (bounce like a joey, flap like a bird - what does a kitty say?). With the rhyme scheme being so spot on though, I tried not to break it up too much. Would definitely use it again.

Used for Animal Babies baby storytime June 2012. show less

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.

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 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 show more 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. show less

Readers get to choose which of several options they think monsters use to get ready for bed - for example, to clean their teeth, do they use a toothbrush, toothpaste, floss, or an octopus? Of course, it's an octopus. The little monsters are adorable and this will elicit lots of giggles.