board book, counting, green, math 

How dull, to be one hippo all alone... until the one calls two other hippos on the phone. Soon three more hippos are at the door, bringing along another four. Before the night is through, a houseful of hippos (and one beast) has joined the one hippo for a boisterous bash. All through the hippo night, Hippos play with great delight. But at the hippo break of day, The hippos all must go away. In clusters of nine, eight, seven, six, and so on, the hippos depart, finally leaving the one hippo "alone once more, [missing] the other forty-four." The well-loved Sandra Boynton wrote this tribute to silliness in 1977, inspiring generations of the very young to learn to count. Lively, cute new illustrations complement this edition, with big numbers (one through nine, and nine through one) boldly placed on the corner of each page. The sturdy board book will withstand lots of eager counting fingers, and maybe even a berserk hippo or two. Boynton's familiar style can be seen in scads of other delightfully nonsensical titles, including Barnyard Dance! and Moo, Baa, La La La!. (Ages 3 to 7) --Emilie Coulter