"The spare design, a fetching combination of inky black lines and blankets of saturated color, perfectly reflects the comical nature of the friends’ opposing perspectives. Rickerty has fun with color—at one point Bella paints Hugo orange (to be Cinderella’s pumpkin), and the next spread is a cheerful mess of orange hippo tracks and white Bella tracks. The copyright page shows a photograph of a bird and hippo together, a natural phenomenon no doubt inspiring Hugo’s opening line “All hippos have birds, and Bella is mine.” A satisfying story of hippo-bird, bird-hippo friendship."
--Kirkus Reviews, December 1, 2011

I Don’t Want to Be a Pea!
Ann Bonwill, illus. by Simon Rickerty. S&S/Atheneum, $14.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-4424-3614-5

Hugo Hippo and Bella Bird may be symbiotic simpaticos, but the strong-willed duo can’t see eye to eye as the Hippo-Bird Fairy-Tale Fancy Dress Party approaches (they can’t even agree on the name of the event). Bella doesn’t want to be the pea in a joint Princess in the Pea costume, while Hugo has no interest in being the “gray and blobby” rock to Bella’s mermaid. Unable to come to terms, the pals harrumph to their separate quarters until a change of heart leads to a solution—and proves that they really are two peas in a pod. Bonwill (Naughty Toes) peppers her gentle friendship story with bits of knowing humor (“But you are gray and blobby,” Bella says of the rock costume. “I will ignore that comment,” Hugo replies), giving the proceedings some energetic flair. Different fonts distinguish the two speakers’ words, and Rickerty balances sweet and silly in his portraits, using simple shapes, forceful lines, and snazzy blocks of color to give the friends plenty of personality. Ages 2–6.

--Publishers Weekly, December 19, 2011