Hippos no longer berserk
April 3, 2024 11:42 AM Subscribe
The children's counting book, Hippos Go Berserk!, over 45 years after its original publication, now has a sequel, Hippos Remain Calm. In an interview with Slate, author Sandra Boynton reveals hitherto unknown details of hippo psychology and muses on the literary merits of board books.
While she does draw outstanding hippos, my favorites of her characters remain the cats. Every cat is a spherical, vaguely annoyed, ball of fluff. Perfection.
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 11:51 AM on April 3 [6 favorites]
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 11:51 AM on April 3 [6 favorites]
This interview is absolutely charming.
It's possible that the classic Hippo Birdie Two Ewes card set young me on a lifelong journey of loving silly word play. Thanks Ms Boynton!
posted by Pickman's Next Top Model at 11:56 AM on April 3 [5 favorites]
It's possible that the classic Hippo Birdie Two Ewes card set young me on a lifelong journey of loving silly word play. Thanks Ms Boynton!
posted by Pickman's Next Top Model at 11:56 AM on April 3 [5 favorites]
(board books are oddly not eligible for the NYT bestseller list)
Change.org here I come.
posted by The Bellman at 12:05 PM on April 3 [13 favorites]
Change.org here I come.
posted by The Bellman at 12:05 PM on April 3 [13 favorites]
Oh, that's truly wonderful.
I learned about Hippos Go Berserk! very recently, when I read Vintage Contemporaries by Dan Kois - so I was delighted to see he's the interviewer here.
Hippos makes several appearances in Vintage Contemporaries. The major characters, Emily and her husband Alan have a young daughter, Jane, and they read Hippos to her:
I love Sandra Boynton, and every time she appears here on MetaFilter, I'm reminded that I love Sandra Boynton.
Thank you so much for posting this, jackbishop!
posted by kristi at 12:22 PM on April 3 [6 favorites]
I learned about Hippos Go Berserk! very recently, when I read Vintage Contemporaries by Dan Kois - so I was delighted to see he's the interviewer here.
Hippos makes several appearances in Vintage Contemporaries. The major characters, Emily and her husband Alan have a young daughter, Jane, and they read Hippos to her:
The thing was, they did a bit where Hippos Go Berserk was only available at naptime, and the rest of the day, it simply disappeared from the house. As a joke they had once told Jane that the book traveled to other people’s houses to help those children take naps, and returned when Jane took a nap, but Jane could not decipher gentle absurdity, and so she now resolutely believed there was one copy of Hippos Go Berserk in the world and that it appeared at their house around two thirty every Saturday and Sunday afternoon. And now they couldn’t get out of it. The Sandra Boynton book was far too crucial to their weekend sanity to risk upending its efficacy with the truth.This lovely post reminds me that I should find a copy of Hippos Go Berserk myself - and, now, also, a copy of Hippos Remain Calm.
I love Sandra Boynton, and every time she appears here on MetaFilter, I'm reminded that I love Sandra Boynton.
Thank you so much for posting this, jackbishop!
posted by kristi at 12:22 PM on April 3 [6 favorites]
I've been fine with letting a lot of childhood mementos go, but my "Holly Hippodays" mug is going to be around until one of us ends. Lovely to see that that gentle, silly playfulness comes through in interviews as well as her work.
posted by EvaDestruction at 12:25 PM on April 3 [3 favorites]
posted by EvaDestruction at 12:25 PM on April 3 [3 favorites]
This is not a terrible mantra:
Besides these and the wonderful George and Martha, are there any other good literary hippos?
posted by trig at 12:35 PM on April 3 [3 favorites]
“O, flare thy wild nostrils,(I also enjoyed the blurb: "Hippos have a reputation for wild parties that go on till dawn. People have even gone so far as to say that partying hippos 'go berserk.' Nobody knows how these rumors got started.")
And welcome the day!
Onward! And upward!
Come what will,
come what may.”
Besides these and the wonderful George and Martha, are there any other good literary hippos?
posted by trig at 12:35 PM on April 3 [3 favorites]
My daughter was born last year and she was followed shortly thereafter by gigantic piles of Boynton books dropped off by friends and relatives.
I've got to ask. Do any other people struggle to read her writing aloud? At least coming out of my mouth, a book like Pajama Time is the textual equivalent of a Rush song: rhythym changes, weird emphases, some bits that are loud because???
I love her humor and her drawings but sometimes worry in a new parent way that I'm reading her books "wrong".
posted by ZaphodB at 12:35 PM on April 3 [2 favorites]
I've got to ask. Do any other people struggle to read her writing aloud? At least coming out of my mouth, a book like Pajama Time is the textual equivalent of a Rush song: rhythym changes, weird emphases, some bits that are loud because???
I love her humor and her drawings but sometimes worry in a new parent way that I'm reading her books "wrong".
posted by ZaphodB at 12:35 PM on April 3 [2 favorites]
Zaphod: depends on the book. I hear that others actively dislike The Going To Bed Book; for me I read it aloud in a melodic chant and the words are slippery and lovely. (I do add my own couplet on the exercise page which I agree needs a bit more contextualizing for literal toddlers)
I don’t particularly love the “song” books as I don’t know the melodies.
posted by samthemander at 12:53 PM on April 3 [3 favorites]
I don’t particularly love the “song” books as I don’t know the melodies.
posted by samthemander at 12:53 PM on April 3 [3 favorites]
Aww. That was charming. I have a 1.5 year old, and I'm pretty sure I can recite The Going To Bed Book from memory. Are You A Cow is also absolutely a greatest hit around here, now that Little Bowties can make animal sounds. Guess we'll need to check this one out!
posted by bowtiesarecool at 1:01 PM on April 3 [1 favorite]
posted by bowtiesarecool at 1:01 PM on April 3 [1 favorite]
(I do add my own couplet on the exercise page which I agree needs a bit more contextualizing for literal toddlers)
tbh this late-30s person also needs context for that page because I'm baffled. like, is it metaphor or something
hi I'm on MetaFilter and I could overthink a page of Boynton
posted by ZaphodB at 1:02 PM on April 3 [4 favorites]
tbh this late-30s person also needs context for that page because I'm baffled. like, is it metaphor or something
hi I'm on MetaFilter and I could overthink a page of Boynton
posted by ZaphodB at 1:02 PM on April 3 [4 favorites]
Do any other people struggle to read her writing aloud?
Yeah, I always try to turn Snuggle Puppy into a song and instead of pop it sounds like a church hymn. I used to fib before my kids could read and turn it into Rubber Ducky the Sesame Street song.
posted by The_Vegetables at 1:17 PM on April 3 [3 favorites]
Yeah, I always try to turn Snuggle Puppy into a song and instead of pop it sounds like a church hymn. I used to fib before my kids could read and turn it into Rubber Ducky the Sesame Street song.
posted by The_Vegetables at 1:17 PM on April 3 [3 favorites]
I have thought about getting a tattoo of a tiny hippopotamus a-la Boynton's Belly Button Book, since I have read these books a million times (initially in my old childhood, and now as a parent).
posted by dismas at 1:19 PM on April 3 [1 favorite]
posted by dismas at 1:19 PM on April 3 [1 favorite]
the wonderful George and Martha
So I saw this and thought, "good Lord, that's an awfully bleak literary namesake for a children's book", but apparently they're named after President Washington and his wife. I was thinking of a different famous George and Martha.
posted by jackbishop at 1:28 PM on April 3 [3 favorites]
So I saw this and thought, "good Lord, that's an awfully bleak literary namesake for a children's book", but apparently they're named after President Washington and his wife. I was thinking of a different famous George and Martha.
posted by jackbishop at 1:28 PM on April 3 [3 favorites]
Kid Blah is now almost 21 but I can still hear him laughing uproariously at Blue Hat, Green Hat. The absurdity of that book is off the charts.
posted by BlahLaLa at 1:40 PM on April 3 [2 favorites]
posted by BlahLaLa at 1:40 PM on April 3 [2 favorites]
It's perfectly ok to change up some words to make it easier to read. You will not damage your child's delicate brain. In the unlikely event they angrily confront you after learning to read about "doing it wrong" make them read it to you instead.
posted by emjaybee at 1:42 PM on April 3
posted by emjaybee at 1:42 PM on April 3
But why in the going to bed book do they go downstairs to exercise AFTER brushing their teeth?
I too love reading the book to my kids. But man, oh, man, I'm always left puzzled about that one.
posted by atomicstone at 2:23 PM on April 3 [3 favorites]
I too love reading the book to my kids. But man, oh, man, I'm always left puzzled about that one.
posted by atomicstone at 2:23 PM on April 3 [3 favorites]
One Hippo all alone
calls two hippos on the phone.
Three hippos at the door
bring along another four.
Five hippos come overdressed.
Six hippos show up with a guest.
Seven hippos arrive in a sack
While eight hippos sneak in the back.
Nine hippos come to work.
All the hippos go berserk!
All through the hippo night
hippos play with great delight.
But at the hippo break of day,
the hippos all must go away.
....
Ugh, that's all I can remember. But given that my son turns 18 tomorrow, the book clearly made an impression.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 4:27 PM on April 3 [3 favorites]
calls two hippos on the phone.
Three hippos at the door
bring along another four.
Five hippos come overdressed.
Six hippos show up with a guest.
Seven hippos arrive in a sack
While eight hippos sneak in the back.
Nine hippos come to work.
All the hippos go berserk!
All through the hippo night
hippos play with great delight.
But at the hippo break of day,
the hippos all must go away.
....
Ugh, that's all I can remember. But given that my son turns 18 tomorrow, the book clearly made an impression.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 4:27 PM on April 3 [3 favorites]
An Amazon reviewer wins the internet:
After they go berserk and get older, the get calmer. We need a “Hippos take out a mortgage” and “Hippos fill out FAFSA”.posted by Winnie the Proust at 4:31 PM on April 3 [3 favorites]
It's perfectly ok to change up some words to make it easier to read. You will not damage your child's delicate brain.
Oh, the 9 month old doesn't care if I take artistic liberties. It's MY brain I'm worried about.
posted by ZaphodB at 4:49 PM on April 3
Oh, the 9 month old doesn't care if I take artistic liberties. It's MY brain I'm worried about.
posted by ZaphodB at 4:49 PM on April 3
My kids are 21 and 19 now and I miss the countless bedtimes reading Sandra Boynton's books with them. I will never tire of reading those books.
posted by AJScease at 4:53 PM on April 3 [3 favorites]
posted by AJScease at 4:53 PM on April 3 [3 favorites]
Sandra Boynton was an important part of my early marriage, 42+ years ago. The Hippo Birdie Two Ewes card started it; when I gave it to my wife she realized beyond all doubt word play was part of her life forever. Sandra appearances have actually been pretty rare in our life; she pops up, now and then (I'm looking at you, Philadelphia Chickens), but she has always been important. It's always nice to be reminded she's still around.
posted by lhauser at 5:07 PM on April 3 [2 favorites]
posted by lhauser at 5:07 PM on April 3 [2 favorites]
The entirety of Moo, Baa, La La La by Sandra Boynton can be sung to the tune of Bad Romance by Lady Gaga. I cannot read it out loud any other way.
posted by thecjm at 7:22 PM on April 3 [9 favorites]
posted by thecjm at 7:22 PM on April 3 [9 favorites]
We also got a stack of Boynton books for the birth of my tiny human. Hippos Go Berserk was a later Little Free Library find. Seeing the One Hippo's rotary telephone prompted me to look at the copyright year and I was surprised to see 1977! And I just saw Hippos Remain Calm at the library today, figured it was just part of the canon. All of that to say: the stories are timeless silliness, and Sandra Boynton is a national treasure.
Re: rhyming, I've made up my own Snuggle Puppy tune and I don't want it spoiled by the "real" one
posted by paradeofblimps at 8:50 PM on April 3
Re: rhyming, I've made up my own Snuggle Puppy tune and I don't want it spoiled by the "real" one
posted by paradeofblimps at 8:50 PM on April 3
For people who want to sing Sandra Boynton books, there are at least two albums. One is mostly someone in Boynton's family (I think that's the one with Snuggle Puppy, and also with the Remarkable Cows). For the second one, she invited a bunch of famous people, who all said yes. My favorite is a duet between Al Yankovich and Kate Winslet called "I Need A Nap."
posted by fantabulous timewaster at 9:33 PM on April 3 [2 favorites]
posted by fantabulous timewaster at 9:33 PM on April 3 [2 favorites]
Oh, how I love Sandra Boynton and particularly Hippos Go Berserk! and I had not yet seen this sequel, so thank you for posting.
Our household favorites include: Moo, Baa, La La La!; The Going to Bed Book; Happy Hippo, Angry Duck; But Not the Armadillo; Woodland Dance!; Barnyard Bath! and Dinosaur Dance! But then we also have some good friends whose household favorites include Doggies! and Spooky Pookie...and these are baffling to me.
Also, in my opinion, Personal Penguin, performed by Davy Jones, is not to be missed.
posted by pril at 9:58 PM on April 3 [1 favorite]
Our household favorites include: Moo, Baa, La La La!; The Going to Bed Book; Happy Hippo, Angry Duck; But Not the Armadillo; Woodland Dance!; Barnyard Bath! and Dinosaur Dance! But then we also have some good friends whose household favorites include Doggies! and Spooky Pookie...and these are baffling to me.
Also, in my opinion, Personal Penguin, performed by Davy Jones, is not to be missed.
posted by pril at 9:58 PM on April 3 [1 favorite]
This post has taught me several things. One that I too love Sandra Boynton and her collected works. Two I am not nearly as familiar with her collected works as I thought I was. And three based on this interview that she appears to be exactly the type of person I imagine when I read her books.
posted by TwoWordReview at 2:12 AM on April 4 [2 favorites]
posted by TwoWordReview at 2:12 AM on April 4 [2 favorites]
I love her so much. My husband and I always bought her greeting cards and then we had kids and found out she had books. So many wonderful books! And then there were the albums. My personal favorite is Philadelphia Chickens, which has two incredible songs by the Bacon Brothers, the most spoiled little girl sung by Patti Lupone, I Need a Nap, the Weird Al/Kate Winslet duet already mentioned, and my favorite, the "Gilbert and Sullivan"-esqe "Busy Busy Busy" sung by Kevin Kline. I sing it when work is getting just too much.
Runner-up is the album Blue Moo, with one of the greatest blues songs in children's history, the magnificent One Shoe Blues" sung by the great BB King as a boy who can't find one of his shoes.
My kids are now in college, but I still listen to some of these songs.
posted by ceejaytee at 12:31 PM on April 4
Runner-up is the album Blue Moo, with one of the greatest blues songs in children's history, the magnificent One Shoe Blues" sung by the great BB King as a boy who can't find one of his shoes.
My kids are now in college, but I still listen to some of these songs.
posted by ceejaytee at 12:31 PM on April 4
(I do add my own couplet on the exercise page which I agree needs a bit more contextualizing for literal toddlers)
tbh this late-30s person also needs context for that page because I'm baffled. like, is it metaphor or something
I always editorialize - it's a bad idea for them to exercise in their pajamas, which will get all sweaty! and right before bed? Poor life choices.
But I do love the end: "The moon is high, the sea is deep, they rock and rock and rock to sleep."
Some Sandra Boynton are great, some just okay - but none are glurgy (which cannot be said for many books aimed at the same age).
posted by jb at 2:23 PM on April 5 [1 favorite]
tbh this late-30s person also needs context for that page because I'm baffled. like, is it metaphor or something
I always editorialize - it's a bad idea for them to exercise in their pajamas, which will get all sweaty! and right before bed? Poor life choices.
But I do love the end: "The moon is high, the sea is deep, they rock and rock and rock to sleep."
Some Sandra Boynton are great, some just okay - but none are glurgy (which cannot be said for many books aimed at the same age).
posted by jb at 2:23 PM on April 5 [1 favorite]
On the exercise page, I add:
“They dance and jump and move about, to get their bedtime wiggles out.”
This works for our questioning audiences!
posted by samthemander at 7:02 PM on April 5
“They dance and jump and move about, to get their bedtime wiggles out.”
This works for our questioning audiences!
posted by samthemander at 7:02 PM on April 5
WE ARE MARCHING UP ROW A
WE ARE MARCHING DOWN ROW B
WE ARE MARCHING UP ROW C
WE ARE MARCHING DOWN ROW D
posted by hearthpig at 7:00 AM on April 6
WE ARE MARCHING DOWN ROW B
WE ARE MARCHING UP ROW C
WE ARE MARCHING DOWN ROW D
posted by hearthpig at 7:00 AM on April 6
Do any other people struggle to read her writing aloud?
I find "Hippos Go Berserk" is best read while imaging a cool jazz rhythm section underneath, with finger snaps on the off-beats.
posted by daisystomper at 8:50 PM on April 6
I find "Hippos Go Berserk" is best read while imaging a cool jazz rhythm section underneath, with finger snaps on the off-beats.
posted by daisystomper at 8:50 PM on April 6
« Older Once Upon a Time, the World of Picture Books Came... | Rude Britannia Newer »
posted by samthemander at 11:49 AM on April 3 [4 favorites]