HILDA MUST BE DANCING

Hilda the hippo joins the corps of cows, pigs, chickens, and other terpsichorean livestock currently capering across picture-book pages. As in her deservedly popular Bear Snores On (2002), Wilson’s verse swings fetchingly: “And while she danced in utter bliss, / it sounded quite a lot like this: / KA-BUMP! KA-BUMP! CRASH! CRASH! SMASH!” Watts depicts a wide-bodied, Martha-like (as in George and, not Graham) blue hippo, arrayed in leotards, Carmen Miranda wear, disco pants, and more, stylishly lumbering across leafy landscapes as various African creatures look on in dismay. Having, at the request of these last, sampled and rejected less seismic avocations (“Hilda tried to sit and knit. / She didn’t like it, not one bit”) she, along with her relieved audience, finds the perfect venue at last—in water ballet. Move over Olivia, Clorinda, Angelina, Red, and all you others. (Picture book. 7-9)