Ruby and the Noisy Hippo

My granddaughter Ruby loves this book! She is only three and a half months old, and (no kidding) this is her favorite book. Everytime we open the first page and sing, "La La La! Bang Bang Bang!" she lights up with a huge smile. The colors are great; the story is cute; and it lends itself to lots of reading and singing with inflection (which is entertaining for us as well as Ruby)! This book is a must-have for fun, high-energy afternoons.

I mean really embarrassing. The sort of person you invited to a dinner party, and your spouse asks "Why on earth did you invite that imbecile?" and you reply "I only invited him to be polite, I didn't think he'd actually come." Our morals are challenged when reading this book. When we have an embarrassing friend, should we still cleave to that person or should we make every effort to be cleft from him or her? "Dog" features in this book, but note that s/he has a leading role in Helen Stephen's other marvelous volume "Ruby and the Muddy Dog". We also see "Bear" a number of times, but it seems Stephens is yet to provide us with a volume starring him or her. Will Stephens write one? Will she listen to the growing demand from her readers? I can almost hear the chanting in nurseries and homes across the Western World right now: "We want Horse! We want Horse! We want Horse!" This book is great fun to read to young children. My boy enjoys it every time. I note that on the page which reads "But by the time they reached the postbox, Hippo was singing..." It's at this point I'd insert the La La La, not after the rest of the text on the page. Maybe that's an obvious point. 5 stars. Great!

I purchased this book for my daughter - Rubey.Like the other Ruby Book - Ruby and the Muddy Dog (also by Helen Stephens) - this Ruby book is also fantastic. The illustrations make the story. The Hippo hiding behind the telephone box, lamp post and generally trying to be quiet is funny.The Noisy Hippo saves the day by scaring away the Big Candy Eating Monster and Ruby and Hippo walk off into the sunset together - stomping and making lots of noise.