BOLOJI AND OLD HIPPO

This story of an eight year old African boy's difficult transition from village to city life and his fascination with a hippopotamus is merely a thin sheet covering the evangelical message of the book. For it is the church and its various offices -- the school, the hospital, etc.--which make the transition an easy and a happy one. There is an assumption here that there is some intrinsic value in acquainting the young reader with a smattering of African words -- each chapter provides a small vocabulary. Outside of the novelty, there is no evident merit to this acquisition, and it would be preferred that the author look more to her own language, which is flat and repetitive.