But Not the Hippopotamus

by Sandra Boynton

A shy hippo is hesitant to join in the fun that the other animals are having. But little by little, she finds her courage. A fine and funny book, with over two million copies in print, But Not the Hippopotamus is a classic favorite anytime book for little kids and their parents.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Animals, Fiction, Humor, Kids, Storytime

16 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 1, 1982

About the author

Sandra Keith Boynton is an American humorist, songwriter, director, music producer, children's author, and illustrator. Boynton has written and illustrated over eighty-five books for children and seven general audience books, as well as over four thousand greeting cards, and seven music albums. She has also designed calendars, wallpaper, bedding, stationery, paper goods, clothing, jewelry, and plush toys for various companies.

Reviews

[Philip Smith]

A tragic story of exclusion, bigotry and prejudice, while ultimately celebrating redemption.

A satisfying read, but one I feel is let down by the lack of any attempt to explore the motives of the characters. Why were the moose and the goose together having juice without the hippopotamus? We do not find out.

Without wanting to post spoilers, I will also add that the denouement contains a twist worthy of M. Night Shyamalan.

[Argott]

Parents are faced with all sort sorts of difficult questions. Are feature-length Disney films too scary for kids? Will taking away the toy gun that your child carved from a bar of soap inhibit her creative spirit? Is it okay to spank your children after they punch you in the stomach? And will the aforementioned spanking only teach them to try to run away more quickly the next time they assault you? (For those of you without kids, the answer to each question is yes.)

On each rereading of this beloved children's book I am bothered by the isolation of the hippopotamus, and later, the armadillo. Who hasn't hidden behind a tree wondering why they are being excluded? However, it's obvious why the hog and the frog and the cat and the rats and the moose and the goose and the bear and the hare are so reticent. Hippopotamuses are widely acknowledged to be among the most dangerous animals in Africa. And armadillos carry leprosy.

And now parents face a new difficult question: Are young children ready to learn the truth about hippos and dillos? After reading But Not the Hippopotamus to my children for six of the longest years of my life, I strongly believe that this book is far more harmful to the adult who reads it than the child who hears it. Children, god-bless them, are resilient.

[Eric]

This is a great poem about the trials of being a non-standard person in a world where everyone else rhymes. I think kids can get a lot out of this little board book, and think Sandra Boynton is a genius when it comes to short and pointed poems and her drawings accompany the story nicely, despite their simple cartoony style.





My Daughter and I still feel sorry for the armadillo though.

[Rod Brown]

I loved reading this to my daughter when she was young, and read it again this year after reading the disappointing new sequel. Still love it! The combination of words and pictures is cute, charming and delightful.

[Erica]

The book is well written and illustrated, but it's a horrible plot. It was a great book until the very last page. Spoiler alert, the Hippo is excluded the whole book but then is included in the end. But then they exclude the Armadillo instead! This could have been a 5 star book about including everyone if the author had simply left out the last page, but instead became about excluding the less fortunate. I've decided to cover up the last page and create an alternate ending so that I don't hate this story.

[Harlow]

This book made me smile!!!

[Gurband Mann]

Easy read. Finished it in one day

[Bookfanatic]

I personally love this book and I'm an adult. It's a cute story about what other animals do, but not the hippo who doesn't seem to be allowed to do anything except at the end she does do something. She kills all the other animals because they were mean to her.

No, no, she doesn't. I'm joking.

The story is very amusing. My daughter loved this book when she was younger. Boynton's books aren't very babyish. She uses words like "cavort" "bog" which you typically don't see in toddler and preschool books and I like that. It's good for expanding a child's vocabulary.

[Mike]

Why is this five stars you ask? Well, if I could have one wish, it would be for peace on earth. But if I could have two wishes, it would be peace on earth and a recording of Small Change era Tom Waits reading this. It totally fits as a song of his. At least, it did when I tried to do the voice.

[Kristen]

What I learned: anthropomorphized animals are not as exclusionary and mean as they may sometimes seem at first. Also, animals are cute. And "goose" and "moose" rhyme with "juice."

[Kathryn Spurgeon]

Grammatically upsetting, this is either a book about social tyranny or a self-pious stalker. I’m going to go with the later

The hippopotamus has put herself in a victim position and adopted the mentality of personal suffering and oppression at the hands of her peers. She has not been excluded from trying on hats or drinking juice, but has ostracized herself in order to maintain her own personally afflicted victimhood narrative. Do not trust the hippopotamus.

[Elijah]

I do not know why my mom and Gigi keep trying to get me to read this. NO THANKS.

[James Welch]

Solid rhyme schemes, horrible cliff hanger ending. Do not recommend.

[Jessica DeWitt]

I related to the hippopotamus hard. A naturally solo creature, I've always been someone who has lots of friends, but am rarely invited into close friend groups or invited to do things with the friends I do have. Sometimes I'm fine with my lot, other times it makes me super sad. Anyways "But not the hippopotamus" is interchangeable with "But not the DeWitt" and, therefore, this book ranks high for me.

[Bodi]

The classic tale of the shy person, feeling awkward and 'on the fringe' of the social circle.

This book nevertheless tells the tale in an engaging manner. We are called to empathise with the heroine* of the story, as she watches the "cool kids" around her engaging in various activities.

As is common with extremely shy people, it's not immediately apparent that she wishes to join in, so it's understandable that perhaps the others initially mistook her lack of participation as disinterest.

Thankfully, the others collectively figure out what's really going on, and they seek to remedy the situation.

My parents gave a copy of this book to my daughter, who was but a toddler at the time.

While I had long been familiar with Ms. Boynton's illustrations, this was the first book of hers I read, and is thus the benchmark against which all others are compared. Her other books are, truly, wonderful in their own right, but I think this will always be my favourite.

I'm fairly certain I had it memorised within a week, as both she and her brother asked me to read it "Again" ...

That was nearly twenty years ago, but I can still recite it by heart, and with Dramatic Flair. (As is most appropriate)

*Ms. Boynton, being a particularly astute writer, has not ascribed any restrictive gender roles to any of her characters in this remarkable book. The Hippo was merely referred to as "she" in our home because my daughter declared it- I suspect because the character was so well depicted that she could relate to her on a personal level.

[Ashlee Thomas Watt]

The shy hippopotamus is left out, and the other animals finally include her but then the armadillo is left out?!

This story makes me so sad lol.

If anyone has time to kill, I’d recommend reading the reviews other people have for this book.

[J9]

A cute Boynton book with a story line that all my children could enjoy, even if it was just to be able to repeat the word hippopotamus over and over again. Not one of our all time favorites, but adorable illustrations and one we all enjoyed.

[Anselm]

Really thick pages. Good for miniature fingers. A tale of odd pairings and outcasts, with a sequel hinted at involving an armadillo.

[Mary]

My 2 year old says: "It was amazing. I really liked it." At the end, he says "the armadillo is sad because he wants to come. The armadillo wants to cry." Hugs.

[Aneesa]

The more I think about this, the more I think the rhyme scheme is a plot device.

[Maeve’s Reading Adventures]

This was part of the second set of books Maeve and I got at the library.

We own some Sandra Boynton books at home, gifted to us by friends at our baby shower and we love them!

This one however, I didn’t enjoy reading to my baby. It reiterates “But not the hippopotamus” many times throughout the book, where the animal gets excluded while the other animals are having fun. Then the end page it shows that the hippopotamus agrees to join them and it shows the armadillo is now the one left out - so the ending isn’t nice. It looks like there is a follow up book for the armadillo “But Not the Armadillo” upon reading some reviews but it wasn’t clear that there was a continuation of this story. Normally a book features the next installment either in the front page or back page to notify the reader the story isn’t done yet.

Regardless, I didn’t like how you need to buy/borrow a secondary book to finish the story and reading just this one on its own makes it have still an ending of exclusion.

I don’t think the hippopotamus should agree to join the animal pack because they continually excluded her a bunch of times (not true friends). They all decided to run past her without inviting and only decided upon second thought to offer her to come join them when they scurry back 🤷🏻‍♀️

[raccoon reader]

What a sweet book. We came on late to the Boynton book party at our house but I was able to snag a few at a consignment sale and we read them, but he was likely a bit too old for board books by then. We've been cleaning out board books and this was one to go so I'm finally recording it as read here on GR even though I read it a few years ago (and re-read it yesterday). Love the hippopotamus (and the armadillo).

[Pikpixel]

But Not the Hippopotamus is a masterpiece of a book. It's about animals doing many activities but the Hippopotamus not involving themself in any. I read this book so many times as a child because of how good the writing is and the compelling storyline. I appreciate the happy ending as many good books have sad endings. Sadly, the book is surprisingly short and I wish it were longer.

[Samantha]

A rhyming board book in which groups of animals seem to be excluding the hippopotamus from their fun, but ask her to join in by story's end.

A fun read aloud for the Toddler and PreK crowd.

[Travis Mulhauser]

One of my all-time favs, didn't like the end, so I rewrote the last page with a sticky label to include the armadillo

[Emily]

More excellent Boynton. The best thing about this one is that Iris unfailing breaks into a HUGE grin when the animal pack comes scurrying back for the hippo. It must be because of our delivery; it's the cutest.

[Ryan]

Boynton has a way with words and illustrations. It is a fun sing song rhyme that works in whatever format it is in.

[Rachel]

Aw this is cute! It has the fun rhymes and the shy hippo. Not to give away the ending but I truly laughed out loud and then immediately went "awww"🙈

[Anna]

Not our fave, but tbh Sandra Boynton never disappoints.

[agate]

i read this so kissing the coronavirus wouldn't be my shortest book of the year ok