15th February Hippopotamus Day

If you look at my Pinterest page for hippos you will see that hippos are quite a phenomenon in the world of children's books. They feature not only in traditional nonfiction books, but they are the main characters in narrative nonfiction which relate the lives of real-life hippos such as Fiona and Mzee. They are the stars of great novels such as Morris Lurie's The Twenty-Seventh Annual Hippopotamus Race, they feature in folktales such as those about a tug of war between and elephant and a hippo, they become the brunt of humour and even best friends when you see the series of books Duck and Hippo by Jonathan London and Andrew Joyner or those by Jeff Mack about  Hippo and Rabbit.

Find out about real hippos first:

• The Truth About Hippos by Maxwell Eaton III

• Hippos are Huge!  by Jonathan London

Learn about famous hippos like Fiona and Mzee:

Fiona is a hippopotamus that was born six years ago at the Cincinnati Zoo in Ohio. She was born prematurely and is famous for surviving. She now has quite a lot of books written about her.

• Saving Fiona  by Thane Maynard

• Fiona the Hippo  by Richard Cowdery

Owen is a baby hippo who was rescued after the  December 2004 tsunami. Villagers in Kenya worked tirelessly to rescue him and he became the best friend of a 130 year old tortoise named Mzee.

•  Owen and Mzee by Isabella Hatkoff

• Mama and Owen  by Marion Dane Bauer

• Mama by Jeanette Winter

Read folktales:

• Hot Hippo  by Mwenye Hadithi

• The Great Tug of War  by Beverley Naidoo

• Clever Tortoise  by Francesca Martin

• Tug of War  by Naomi Howarth

Then have fun reading stories such as these:

• There's a Hippo on the Roof Eating Cake  by Hazel Edwards and deborah Niland

• Happy Hippo  by Charles Santoso

• The First Hippo on the Moon by David Walliams and Tony Ross

• Zippo the Super Hippo  by Kes Gray and Nikki Dyson

• Hilda Must Be Dancing  by Karma Wilson and Suzanne Watts

• The Twenty-Seventh Annual African Hippopotamus race  by Morris Lurie

They even feature in art books. There is a small blue hippo, an ancient Egyptian relic named William  at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. He has a book about him

• The Little Hippo by Geraldine Elschner

19th February Tug-of-War Day

All children know what tug-of-war is, because it is a fun activity on school sport or picnic day. Schools may not always play it the 'formal' way that international competitions use, but it is meant to be fun.

The concept of tug-a-war has been treated admirably by picture books, most of which have  African animals 'warring' to see who is strongest. 



In John Agard's version a rhino and an elephant are tricked by Brer Rabbit into staging a tug-o-war which ends in a dead heat. Brer Rabbit teaches them that 'friendship is longer than rope'. 

In John Burningham's tale an elephant and a hippo tease poor hare constantly, until fed up the hare challenges each of them to a tug-of-war. As before, he tricks them and proves that brains can be better than brute strength.

 Beverley Naidoo takes the African setting further giving the animals African names befitting the Nigerian folktale upon which the story is based.
'Mmutla the hare tricks Tlou the elephant and Kubu the hippo into having an epic tug of war. The whole savanna is soon laughing at their foolishness. However small animals should not make fun of big animals and King Lion, together with Tswhene the baboon and wise old Khudu the tortoise set out to teach Mmutla a lesson - but the clever hare is always one step ahead.'

 

And in the newest version by Naomi Howarth, it is the tortoise who challenges Elephant and Hippo to a tug-of-war. As in the other stories they end up fighting each other.

All these fables about wit and wisdom being more important than physical size or strength and how friendship matters most are masterfully told and beautifully illustrated.

21st July Tug-of-War Day

What a great excuse to read Beverley Naidoo's fantastic story, The Great Tug of War about how a hare tricks hippo and elephant into a pulling contest with one another. There are many other versions of this story around, especially in beginning reading schemes, but this one is a short novella format which the children love and it uses the language of Botswana. It is perfect for the Book Week theme too, if you are looking for stories from Africa.

Interestingly, one of the books on the Early Childhood Book Week shortlist, The Tall Man and the Twelve Babies also has a tug of war, albeit an impromptu one. In this story the tall man is inadvertently locked outside his apartment with six of the babies and the cat, while

the other six babies are still in the apartment with the keys. He attempts to climb through the catflap and gets stuck. He asks the babies on both ends of him to pull and a tug of war ensues, obviously not the way to dislodge him. The preschoolers I have read the story to this week have found it very funny and had plenty of suggestions as to what he should have done! This amusing story by Tom Champion and his mother, Kilmeny Niland and illustrated by his aunt Deborah Niland is definitely worth reading to the very young.

21st May Virginia Haviland (1911 - 1988) Beverley Naidoo (1943)

Beverley Naidoo is a South African -born author who now lives in Britain. She left South Africa because of the political situation and she still works tirelessly for refugees and the poorly treated in our world. She wrote Journey to Jo'Burg, a novel about a black South African housekeeper who was living a long way from her own children and having to deal with the traumas this creates.

I remember reading this book when I was a very naive, unworldly new teacher and being so shocked that people lived like this. I embarked then on reading other books set in South Africa like Toeckey Jones' Go Well Stay Well. I serialised Journey to Jo'burg for the class I was teaching and that began my quest for making sure that the children I teach read widely about children from cultures other than their own.

When Journey to Jo'burg was published in 1985 it was banned in South Africa. Naidoo's nieces and nephews could not read it. This year it will celebrate its 25th anniversary and thankfully things have changed somewhat in South Africa. This however does not take away the power of this short novel.

While borrowing Journey to Jo'burg from your library search out The Great Tug of War and Baba's Gift which are also by Beverley Naidoo.

I was doing postgraduate study in Children's Literature when I was first introduced to Virginia Haviland's The Fairy Tale Treasury that is illustrated by Raymond Briggs. I loved

this book. Her tales are the perfect length, they maintain the tale's authenticity and yet they have a 'modern' feel. It sent me off in search of more fairytales, and ultimately to writing essays on lesser known tales such as Tom Tit Tot and Rose White and Rose Red.

Our lecturer admired Haviland and her contribution to children's literature and library services and now I know why. She was a trail blazer. She had degrees in economics and mathematics, but started her working career at the Boston Public Library. She devoted her working life to youth services, writing and reviewing children's literature and scholarly research within the field of library science. She was an outspoken advocate for children's literature and therefore people in libraries and schools, like me need to thank her.