Product Description

Here is the classic Boynton counting story in a sturdy, board book version.

Perfect for travel time, bedtime, or PARTY TIME!

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #23327 in Books
• Published on: 2000-05-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Board book
• 16 pages

Amazon.com Review
How dull, to be one hippo all alone... until the one calls two other hippos on the phone. Soon three more hippos are at the door, bringing along another four. Before the night is through, a houseful of hippos (and one beast) has joined the one hippo for a boisterous bash.

All through the hippo night,
Hippos play with great delight.
But at the hippo break of day,
The hippos all must go away.

In clusters of nine, eight, seven, six, and so on, the hippos depart, finally leaving the one hippo "alone once more, [missing] the other forty-four."

The well-loved Sandra Boynton wrote this tribute to silliness in 1977, inspiring generations of the very young to learn to count. Lively, cute new illustrations complement this edition, with big numbers (one through nine, and nine through one) boldly placed on the corner of each page. The sturdy board book will withstand lots of eager counting fingers, and maybe even a berserk hippo or two. Boynton's familiar style can be seen in scads of other delightfully nonsensical titles, including Barnyard Dance! and Moo, Baa, La La La!. (Ages 3 to 7) --Emilie Coulter

From Publishers Weekly
One of the silliest, most fun counting books around features "One hippo, all alone, calls two hippos on the phone," until a gang of 45 hippos assembles for a party.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
Hippos Go Berserk ($14.00, paper $5.99; Oct. 1, 1996; 32 pp.; 0- 689-80854-2, paper 0-689-80818-6): A 20-year-old counting book gets new illustrations featuring, once again, the solitary hippo who invites two friends to what becomes a wild party as groups of three, then four hippos (up to nine) arrive and then depart. Large numerals appear in the corners of the appropriate pages, where the hippos, wearing wonderfully varied expressions, cavort on large expanses of cheery color. Some of the humor will register only with adults, e.g., a hippo portrait pays homage to Whistler. Most of the fun will make perfect sense to preschoolers; give this to a slightly younger audience than those who love Jeff Sheppard's The Right Number of Elephants (1990). (Picture book. 2-5) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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Customer Reviews

A Board Book of Epic Proportion
The most entertaining "counting book," I've seen, Sandra Boynton pulls out all the stops (and all the hippos) in this hilariously inventive tale of a hippo happening. It all beings with one lonely hippo, who "calls two hippos on the phone. Three hippos at the door [then, next page] bring along another 4. Before long, "seven hippos arrive in a sack. Eight hippos sneak in the back. Nine hippos come to work. ALL THE HIPPOS GO BERSERK!" Berserk here, means 45 hippos (9 + * + & ... + 1) all in the initial hippo's house, tooting horns, tearing down a hippo portrait (drawn like Whistler's mother, if Whistler were a hippo), eating cake, and being served by those nine working hippos. When morning comes, the hippos leave, in as many different ways as they arrived: By "Greyhip" bus, wagon train (!), helicopter, and wheelbarrow.

We've come to expect Boynton's wonderfully whimsical, rounded style, but she adds several humorous details (e.g. a hippo dancing on the roof), and very cleverly associates the numbers with the hippos. Most counting books are very static, a number, say 5, and five of some item on that page. I suppose a more "advanced" presentation is that the numbers are related in some thematic way. However, Boynton doesn't limit herself to the one page per number formula; she writes a continuous story, in which new guests-the ones associated with that page's number--mingle with previous arrivals. She accomplishes this by distinguishing the new, number-relevant guests through their costumes or by color differences. This format may require more cognitively than simpler books, but Boynton's "Hippos GO Berserk" is so entertaining that it stands alone as pure entertainment; its value "counts" much more than the traditional style.

One Hippo All Alone... a back and forth counting book
A wondrous counting book that tells of a lonely hippo who calls two others on the phone. Then larger and larger groups keep arriving (three though nine) until all 45 hippos and the beast (a guest of one of the groups) go berserk and party all through the hippo night. But at the hippo break of day, they all begin to go away (nine through two) until all that is left is the original one.

Most counting books only count in one direction. This fun book counts up and then back down again (although it doesn't use zero). It even makes mention of how many they add up to.

Typical Boynton illustrations add to the fun of this book.

As fun for the parents as for the kids!
This is an absolutely hysterical book of rhyming verse. It's fun to read aloud, and a big hit with the kids. Boynton's drawings are great - as always. One special feature: this book counts backwards as well as forwards. An interesting twist on the usual counting book.