Great friendships come along when we least expect them, and this is especially true in Mouse and Hippo, New Yorker cartoonist Mike Twohy’s hilarious tale of a chance encounter on a summer afternoon.
Meticulous Mouse is focused on getting the waves just right as he paints at the lake, easel atop a gray rock. But, oops! The rock is actually Hippo, who accidentally jolts Mouse into the water. Hippo rescues him, and in thanks, Mouse offers to paint his portrait. Hippo preens and poses while Mouse uses his biggest brush—and paints the whole canvas gray. “My paper was too small to fit all of you in,” Mouse explains. But Hippo is far from disappointed, and he rushes home to hang the monochrome masterpiece over his bathtub (or rather, a reedy nook of the lake). When Hippo returns the favor by painting a portrait of Mouse, he uses the tiniest brush, and the finished painting is a carefully crafted dot. “I love it!” Mouse says. “You made me look so cute!”
With their appreciation for each other’s point of view, Mouse and Hippo become fast, if unlikely, friends. They work together to fit Mouse’s portrait inside his mouse-sized house. Mouse invites Hippo to visit his painting any time, and though Hippo can only peer in with one large eyeball, the new friendship is sure to last well beyond the pages of this clever book.
Twohy’s zany humor is a rare treat. His beguiling characters burst with so much personality that readers will long for a sequel.
Billie B. Little is the Founding Director of Discovery Center at Murfree Spring, a hands-on museum in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
This article was originally published in the February 2017 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.
