by Moe Zilla

Created on: March 09, 2010   Last Updated: February 15, 2012

It's one of the best books about hippopotamuses - but it also has a message. Lena Landstrom is a Swedish author-illustrator, and she's written three stories about funny hippopotamus families. There's "A Hippo's Tale" and "The Little Hippo's Adventure," but this third book shows a surprising amount of both tension and warmth. Something's creating a disturbance "down by the riverback where the hippos live". And on the next page, with one sentence, Sandstrom reveals her surprise.

"Two new hippos have arrived!"

Then she switches perspective, to show the mother hippo and her baby considering this new watering hole. Sandstrom puts the watering hole in the background, looking over the two hippos in a funny drawing whose foreground is their large hippo bottoms and tails! But soon there's tension between the new baby hippo and the other hippos playing on the diving board.

It's a story about being a stranger, and playfully shows the way that a community may treat its newest members. But Sandstrom also shows the tension resolving quickly, and leads her characters to a warm and positive ending. Along the way, the community opens their minds to new ideas, and discover that changes can be exciting. And she does it all with a simple children's story - illustrated by some funny, cartoon-like illustrations.

The next drawing shows the moon is rising - but the new baby hippo still hasn't gotten a turn on the diving board. "All day the new little hippo watches the other little hippos diving and having fun." But things change the next morning when all the other hippos arrive at the diving board - to discover that the baby hippo can perform a spectacular spinning dive! Soon the baby hippo is teaching his technique to the other hippos.

And meanwhile, the mother hippo is having her own problems with the new neighbors. She's building a hut from sticks, and the rest of the community watches skeptically. "'We've never done it like that', they say to each other." But one of the neighbors volunteers the use of her toolbox, and soon the mother has completed her new hippo hut. And as the community watches her enter it, "The big hippos think it looks pretty sturdy."

Sandstrom called her book "The New Hippos" - and it's a theme that she returns to on the book's final page. The mother hippo is accepted into the commuity, and so is her baby. But one day there's a strange voice from the jungle. And it turns out to be...

Three new hippos!

Learn more about this author, Moe Zilla.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.