Welcome, Hippo Lovers!

What would you do if you found a bawling baby hippopotamus knocking at your gate? Join the fun as a father tries to exhaust his daughters to sleep with his impromptu, whimsical, imaginative, silly adventure of two sisters on a quest to help a lost baby hippo find his mama. This interactive tale is best read aloud – at bedtime or any time – and is also great independent reading. Educators may find it useful as a writer’s workshop mini-lesson on action verbs, character traits, predictions, and comparing genres.

Warning: Likely to produce extreme giggling.

The Little, Baby, Pink Hippopotamus Wants His Mama is Jen Leeth’s first published book. It is a story invented by her father, Jack Leeth, who shared it with his daughters, their cousins, and their friends. The story was different each time because he wove everyone who was listening that day into the adventure and the action took place in whatever location he was spinning it. The only constant in the tale was helping the little, baby, pink pachyderm find his mama. The best part was testing how long he’d “hip… hip… hip… hip…” until his listeners took mercy upon him and chorused, “-OPOTAMUS!” so that the story could continue.

In order for listeners to experience the hilarity of testing their narrator’s commitment to this tradition, regardless of how many “hip… hip… hips…” are written on the page, readers are encouraged to please keep “hip… hip… hipping” until their listeners let them off the hook!

Listeners (especially very young, pre-verbal listeners) may want to add to the “-OPOTAMUS” fun in this story by signing along.