Grandpa, Will You Play With Me? Book

When Little Hippo wakes, he knows just what he wants to do. Grandpa, can you play with me? But Grandpa has to say, "Not yet." Lift the flaps and there you'll see all the things that keep him busy. But soon the time comes when Grandpa's free, and together he and Little Hippo cuddle up and read. What a treat!

Children's Literature

A little hippo tries to convince his grandpa to play with him in this lift-the-flap picture book. Each time the little hippo asks his grandpa to play, the grandpa responds with a rhyme. The book's biggest problem is poor word choice. Grandpa tells the little hippo that "we'll lie down for a little nappy." It seems that the substitution of the word nappy for nap is solely for rhyming purposes. At one point, Grandpa says "it's raining from the sky". This may make the reader stop and wonder where else rain would come from. The flow of the book is interrupted several times due to either word choice issues or problematic illustrations. The illustrations are colorful and clear, but they do not accurately depict the text. For example, Grandpa says "we have cereal to eat" but the illustration shows that only the little hippo has cereal while the grandpa has other breakfast food. Also, the rhyme scheme is inconsistent, which makes it difficult to read aloud. A book that might otherwise be endearing and great for a young reader to share with his family is instead simply par.