BIRDBRAIN AMOS, MR. FUN

In this sequel to Birdbrain Amos (2002), the big hippopotamus has nothing to do and feels dejected because his tick bird, Amoeba, has a new friend—but it turns out, she’s imaginary. Ready to swim anywhere to retrieve Amoeba’s affection, Amos starts off on a river trip to the Serengeti to prove he’s Mr. Fun, with the tick bird’s nest on top of his head occupied by Amoeba and her tick family, plus the invisible Nungwe. Of course, things go awry when encounters with other African animals and birds steer Amos the wrong way, right into a series of rapids. Maybe he is Mr. Fun. The constant Abbot and Costello–like banter becomes tedious despite the droll black-and-white drawings that add visual comic relief to this goofy hippo with his tick bird entourage. Overall, the title and cover are signposts of the silliness, but the coarse paper is uninviting. For those who chuckled over the first, here’s a Birdbrain encore. (Fiction. 7-9)