Hippo Jogs for Health

Sweet Pickles #8

by Richard Hefter (Author & Illustrator)

The Sweet Pickles ambassador for good health doesn't know when to stop jogging.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Fiction

32 pages, Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 1977

About the author

Richard Hefter met children's author Jacquelyn Reinach in 1975. He was contracted at the time to write 26 books for the publishers Holt. After the contract expired he formed a publishing venture, Euphrosyne, with Reinach.

He is known as the creator of Stickybear and as the co-creator (with Reinach) and illustrator for the Sweet Pickles[1] library of books, and for the Strawberry Library of First Learning. The Sweet Pickles series went on to sell 40 million copies. Hefter described his aim as "trying to help children understand things like shyness, laziness and embarrassment in a humorous way."

Reviews

[Calista · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hippo is the town doctor and he likes to take everything to extremes. Something is good for you, so he does it till it’s not good for you. He gets on health fads and this week he is jogging. He does his best to get everyone he sees to jog. The weird thing is he runs with little health books he can hand out. He runs for hours and hours until he collapses because he doesn’t know when to stop. Even healthy things for us can be bad for us if we do them to the extreme.

It’s always nice to have a partner in stuff we do and we can’t always find someone to do things with us. For me personally, that’s when it’s difficult to keep doing them, alone. At least Hippo is trying.

It’s sweet pickles and it’s as cute as ever. These books are wonderful. The series was so well done.

Nephew didn’t care much for Hippo trying to get everyone to do something. He thought he was rather boring running the whole book. Goose slept in her hammock and he thought that was amusing. He didn’t think this one brought the funny. It seemed too serious to him. He gave this one 2 stars.

[Stay Fetters · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have no words for how ridiculously hilarious this is.

I won’t lie, I actually purchased this at a thrift store for the cover alone. It’s fantastic and then you open it up and the inside illustrations are even better.

Sweet Pickles book always know how to boost your mood on a Sunday afternoon!

[Blue · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cute and funny in execution, although silly, this book demonstrates the problem with a lack of moderation (in this book - health fads). I would have given it 3 stars except is ended only when Hippo was about to realise there was a problem, with only subtle clues on how others around were pestered and nothing about learning a lesson and how to handle "pickles"; this would not be a consern with a novel as much, but for a young children's book it seems to be a sugnificant omission.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the Sweet Pickles growing up and this was one of my favorites. However, I don't quite see the appeal of this one as an adult- poor, old Hippo gets heat exhaustion/ works out too hard and nearly passes out...
Enjoyed reading a childhood favorite with CC, though.

[Nicola · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had the entire Sweet Pickles Collection from Weekly reader as a kid. This one was memorable. My kids enjoy reading them now, off course Grandma saved them.
They all teach a sweet lesson.