Genre
Picture books for children
Pace
Fast-paced
Tone
Feel-good
Illustration
Cartoony
Colorful
Theme
Being a friend
Unlikely friendships
Subject
Friendship
Hippopotamus
Mice
Painting
Character
Anthropomorphic
Character duos

Mouse and Hippo is about a friendly bond over a mouse and a hippo. They each paint a picture of each other from their point of view. ( )

The book begins when a hippo accidentally causes a painting mouse to fall into a pond. The hippo saves the mouse, and the mouse paints a portrait of of the hippo out of gratitude. However, instead of a portrait, the mouse paints his entire tiny canvas grey because the hippo is so big. The hippo returns the gift with a portrait of his own of the mouse, which ends up being a tiny speck on a large canvas. Regardless of their massive size differences, the two characters help each other and begin what appears to be a great friendship. This book uses a dialogue-only style of writing with cartoon style illustrations with muted colors to tell its story.

The central message of this book is that friendships can occur regardless of personal differences. The author uses two very physically different animals to represent this idea, and shows how compromises, understanding, and acceptance can strengthen relationships and result in positive outcomes for everyone. ( )

I really enjoyed reading this book because I thought it was quite charming. First, the text and fonts used by the author were very colorful, expressive (used interjections) and helped to identify which of the characters was speaking. Second, I also really like the fact that the author highlights the friendship between Hippo and Mouse despite their differences (ie. different animals, one lives in the water and the other on land, one is bit bigger and the other a bit smaller.) For example, while each character takes a turn painting the other, their finished paintings present an accurate representation of how the other looks from their respective point of views. Hippo’s portrait of Mouse is a little brown dot, while Mouse’s portrait of Hippo is a canvas completely covered in gray. Lastly, my favorite thing about this book is that it mixes humor, while also encouraging young students to open to making friends with people who might be different from you! ( )

Easy to read, and funny as can be! ( )