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How dull, to be one hippo all alone… until the one calls two other hippos on the phone. Soon three more hippos are at the door, bringing along another four. Before the night is through, a houseful of hippos (and one beast) has joined the one hippo for a boisterous bash.

All through the hippo night,
Hippos play with great delight.
But at the hippo break of day,
The hippos all must go away.

In clusters of nine, eight, seven, six, and so on, the hippos depart, finally leaving the one hippo “alone once more, [missing] the other forty-four.” The well-loved Sandra Boynton wrote this tribute to silliness in 1977, inspiring generations of the very young to learn to count. Lively, cute new illustrations complement this edition, with big numbers (one through nine, and nine through one) boldly placed on the corner of each page. The sturdy board book will withstand lots of eager counting fingers, and maybe even a berserk hippo or two.

Because we so loved Pajama Time, I had extremely high expectations of this book as well. While it is a good counting book, it doesn’t have quite the same charm as the above mentioned book. I was expecting the hippos to do some more crazy things rather than the one page that the title refers to. It is good in that it counts forward as the hippos show up for a party and then backwards as they all leave for the party. My son, who is just becoming aware of numbers and counting at 2 years, sat for quite some time looking at the pictures and pointing out “fee” (three). Maybe this one will gain in popularity as we read it more and more. The counting forward and backward is definitely an original touch among the counting books out there. The artwork is again adorable. You can’t but help love hippos when they’re drawn this way! Go ahead and check this one out for yourself!