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  • How to Clean a Hippopotamus: A Look at Unusual Animal Partnerships
  • Deborah Stevenson, Editor
Jenkins, Steve. How to Clean a Hippopotamus: A Look at Unusual Animal Partnerships; by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page.; illus. by Steve Jenkins. Houghton, 2010. 32p. ISBN 978-0-547-24515-7 $16.00 R Gr. 3-6.

What's up between a plover and a crocodile? Is it true about the clownfish and the anemone? Have you heard about the marine iguana and the Sally Lightfoot crab? Jenkins and Page, veteran chroniclers of the natural world, tell the true stories of these and more interspecies supercouples engaging in symbiotic relationships wherein both benefit. Graphic-novel-style panel sequences follow a variety of animals in surprising partnerships that bring them food, safety, and health that they would never have enjoyed if they had stuck solely to their own kind. The book manages to introduce over fifty of such partnerships (closing, cleverly, with a look at the domestic dog and the human) in quick, telling snippets, making the point that animals don't exist in a monospecies vacuum even as it provides a colorful panorama of the animal kingdom. The panel format, new for Jenkins and Page, is creatively employed, with cinematic sequences, inventive perspectives, and thoughtful color balances keeping the pages inviting despite their density. The text, with titles for each section in a close relative to Comic Sans font and the main narrative in cleanly lined sans serif with frequent italicized emphasis, visually and tonally recalls comics-style natural history such as good old Mark Trail without becoming camp or stodgy. Animal lovers and reluctant readers will take to this like an oxpecker to a giraffe. Back matter includes brief guides to the featured animals, including their size, habitat, and diet; there's also a short list of books for further reading on symbiosis.

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