HIPPOPOTAMUS STEW

“Quickly, tell me, what would you do / If a hippo were stomping around in your stew.” Horton’s collection of silly animal poems covers the animal kingdom from the ponderous hippo to a snuffling elephant to the annoying, but much celebrated in story and poem, mosquito. There are several gems: advice to tell your jokes to hyenas if you want to be assured of laughs; a centipede’s lament at never finding 100 pairs of matching shoes; a snake who wishes he had a zipper to help him shed his skin; and a tiny lizard’s dream of being a monstrous, fearless dragon. There are others, however, which are definite also-rans in this poetical biome: a penguin poem that brings Helen Lester’s Tacky series to mind and a plaid-tortured chameleon fresh out of Looney Tunes. Adinolfi’s mixed-media illustrations are bright and energetic, making this, if not a first choice, a good enough ingredient to fill out thin poetry collections. (Picture book. 4-7)