Helpful Betty to the Rescue

Helpful Betty the hippopotamus hears a cry and sets off to rescue a monkey she assumes is stuck up in a tree

PreSchool-Grade 2-Betty is a happy young hippo who, with a frog friend, bounces through the jungle trying to be helpful by rescuing her friends or solving the mystery of a lost egg. The illustrations are cheerfully done in lots of bright greens and feature an array of endearing animals. While the stories themselves are somewhat silly, children will enjoy listening to the rhymes and alliteration as "Zippety zoom, zippety zee," Betty goes "scrambling and clambering" through the trees.
Pamela K. Bomboy, Chesterfield County Public Schools, VA
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

One of two new books about a bumbling, irrepressible young hippo whose cheerful goal is to help. Here, noticing ``a poor little monkey stuck in a tree,'' she leaps from her wallow and barges off to get him down, equally oblivious to advice, to the hapless other animals in her path, and to the true nature of monkeys--and hippos. Not until she has climbed the tree (``like a little monkey...oh!'') does it dawn on Betty that she's the one who now needs help; she doesn't know how to get down. However, the resilient palm (rather unrealistically) flips her back to her wallow, to the comic consternation of several wading flamingoes. Morgan's text bounces right along, propelled by colorful verbs detailing Betty's insouciant progress. A frog she accidentally saves en route adds interest to both the plot and the gleeful, meticulously rendered art; he shows up again as a bemused bystander in Helpful Betty Solves a Mystery (ISBN: 0-87614-832- 1). Unusually entertaining fare for beginning readers. (Easy reader. 4-8) -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.