This book had good promise but for me it wasn't the best that I have read and I did feel somewhat disappointed hence the one star rating. I wasn't a huge fan of the illustrations and images used in the book at all. Just wasn't one for me.

Hugo and Friends is a poetry book for children that uses Hugo the hippo to show children around the world. I was very interested in this book for the infusion of poetry, environmental activism and caring about others. This is a very tall order for a collection of twelve poems to live up to. I read a few poems a day to a group of pre-school children. They were very interested in Hugo and the bright illustrations. The first poem, Follow Me did a wonderful job of sparking curiosity and excitement; everyone wanted to know where Hugo would go next. However, children are used to poems that rhyme and have a rhythm when spoken to them, not all of these poems did. This opened up a good lesson on poetry and its many forms, but did make some loose interest. Some poems were also far beyond comprehension for this age group such as Population and Dandelion. These have more obscure concepts. My age group did enjoy Sunrise, Dreams and Fly the best.


I did think that this collection was a good way to introduce children to poetry. I was hoping for a little more cohesiveness with the theme, though. Not every poem could be tied in with animals, caring or even traveling around the world. One poem was about candy, just candy (which the kids loved, but was difficult to tie into any lesson). I do wish each poem took the reader to a definite destination on the globe and tied in an animal friend that lives there such as The Wall did. Overall, a different kind of poetry book for children that will help to introduce free-form poetry and larger concepts through verse with the help of brightly colored animal guides.


This book was received for free in return for an honest review.

Hugo is a smiling hippo who travels the world and recites poetry wherever he goes and about whatever he sees or does. It all has to do with the earth, nature and animals. The poems do not seem to follow any poetry rules. They start rhyming, then switch to something else. That being said, poetry does not always have to follow the rules. These are quick poems that can be used to start a discussion about various issues surrounding our planet, conservation etc. The illustrations are very bright and colourful. They are also very cartoon like which young children will enjoy.

I didn’t finish it. I didn’t like the font and the illustrations were a bit too much for me.

So this is a kids book of poetry, but I didn't find anything to like. The illustrations look like a high school photoshop project, and the poetry is not my thing.

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