Veronica is not happy just being one of the crowd. She wants to stand out. She wants to be noticed. So she needs to leave the cool muddy river bank and leave the crowd of hippopotamuses and find a new place where perhaps she can be famous!
Veronica heads off to the city but everything is so strange. People, traffic, noise and no lovely mud. She tries lying on the pavement but she is told to move on. She is very tired so she lies beside the kerb but the police arrive:
"Don't you know you cannot park here by this fire hydrant?' This time he took out his notebook to give Veronica a parking ticket. But, being a nice man, he put it away again and directed her to a place across the street where she could sleep quietly."
Finally, Veronica finds some water so she can have a refreshing splash. Unfortunately she has actually found the fountain in the middle of the town square and so now the people are angry with her. Then things become even worse when she gobbles up a whole cart of delicious vegetables - cabbages, lettuces, beans, peas and potatoes. (It would be fun to show your young listening companion real peas in their shells/pods).
Veronica has become a thief so she is taken to the police station. Being so very big they have to use a bull-dozer to push her through the door. Luckily it is at this point a kind lady steps in to help.
"The nice old lady seemed to know very well that Veronica had had enough of the city, and that she was tired of being conspicuous."
Why do I LOVE Veronica:
- I love words like conspicuous, inconspicuous, scolded, graciously, gulp, and beloved.
- I love her name - Veronica
- I love the juxtaposition of this huge animal and the busy city
- The alternate colour and black and white line drawing pages are fabulous
- On the black and white pages there are lots of funny little extra details to discover
- The happy ending is also very satisfying
- There are moments of kindness in this story and little touches of humour too
- Of course I do love hippos - I read There's a Hippopotamus on our roof eating cake to every kindy group in my school library from 1984-2017.
Veronica was first published in 1962 and I am so happy to say it has utterly stood the test of time and yes it is still available. You could read this book to a group of children today and they will totally understand the experiences of Veronica herself who really wants to be different to be, here is a delicious word, she wants to be conspicuous.
Let's take a closer look at a few illustrations:
Here is a back view of Veronica - there's so much expression in the movement on this page as she leaves the family and heads off on her adventure.
I'm not sure about the official literary term but I would call this a "grass is greener" story. Setting off to find yourself and your place in the world and your identity, is a tried and true theme in picture books for young children and then there is also the theme of "there's no place like home":
Roger Antoine Duvoisin was born in Switzerland in 1900. He died in 1980. In 1927 he moved to New York City. He won the Caldecott Medal for White Snow, Bright Snow in 1947. In 1968 he was a highly commended runner-up for the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Award for children's illustrators.
| 1968 | Jiří Trnka |  Czechoslovakia | Winner |
| Ib Spang Olsen |  Denmark | Highly Commended | |
| Brian Wildsmith |  UK | Highly Commended | |
| Roger Duvoisin |  USA | Highly Commended |
He worked with his wife, Louise Fatio, on the book The Happy Lion and he is also famous for his books about Petunia the goose. Petunia (1950); Petunia and the Song (1951); Petunia's Christmas (1952); Petunia Takes A Trip (1953); Petunia, Beware! (1958); Petunia, I love You (1965); Petunia's Treasure (1975).
Roger Duvoisin did write some other books about Veronica (though sadly all of these are long out of print). Our Veronica Goes to Petunia's Farm (1962); Veronica's Smile (1964); Veronica and the Birthday Present; and Lonely Veronica (1964).
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