THE HIPPOPOTAMUS SONG
by Michael Flanders & Donald Swann & illustrated by Nadine Bernard Westcott
Theater-goers may remember this deftly phrased song from the duo's delightful show, At the Drop of a Hat (1959). The witty story of the hippos' courtship is embellished with sleights-of- versification like rhyming ``The fair Hippopotama'' with ``she hadn't got a ma'' (not to mention ``His enamorata adjusted her garter'') and punctuated with an irresistible refrain (``Mud! Mud! Glorious mud!...''). Westcott makes it all even funnier, her gleeful hippopotami wallowing and cavorting in the luscious ooze. Music included. (Picture book. 4-8)*justify no*