THERE'S A HIPPOPOTAMUS ON OUR ROOF EATING CAKE

First published in Australia in 1980, a child's fantasy about a hippo up on the roof of her house. Australian author/illustrator Edwards says that her son explained a leak in the roof by saying there was a hippo on the roof eating cake. Unfortunately, this is a feeble excuse for a book. There is no plot, just descriptions of the hippo's doings. The child takes a bath while the hippo takes a shower up on the roof; she eats honey sandwiches and the hippo eats cake; she falls and hurts her knee and, lo and behold, the hippo has a bandage on his knee, too; she can't watch TV because she has to to go to bed but the hippo can. And why isn't the hippo on the roof anymore when the workers come to fix the leak? Because he has climbed down their ladder and gone to his part-time job--in the zoo. But he'll be back. Not quite clever enough to be nonsensical, and only marginally retrieved by the bold illustrations, although the large areas of vivid color might appeal to the very young.