When the sun sank down behind the lake, Uncle Eddie sat outside his house and waited for the hippos…He heard the frogs croaking. He heard an owl hooting. He even heard the faint laugh of a hyena. But he did not hear the noise he was waiting for – the heavy footsteps of sausage-chomping hippos marching towards his long grass.
Uncle Eddie looks after a national park on the shores of Lake Wakka Wakka in southern Africa. He has built himself a hut, and is quite happy there.
But Uncle Eddie has a problem. The grass around his hut is growing too long. What he needs is an animal to come and graze on the grass and keep it short – and he thinks the hippos in the nearby lake are just right for the job. Each night, however, the hippos climb out of the other side of the lake and eat the grass over there. If only he can get them to change sides, Uncle Eddie will be happy.
Uncle Eddie and the Hippos is one of two titles in the new Uncle Eddie series from Black Dog Books. In the second title, Uncle Eddie needs to outwit a large crocodile in Uncle Eddie and the Croc. Each book is complemented by full colour illustrations (by Kevin Burgemeestre) and back of book fact pages.
An absorbing, high-interest series for junior and middle primary aged readers.
Uncle Eddie and the Hippos and Uncle Eddie and the Croc, by Lucy Farmer, illustrated by Kevin Burgemeestre
Black Dog Books, 2009