Having the hiccups can be quite the amusing experience for a young child, and as a parent, I jump on any opportunity that I get to be goofy and loud with my kids, so when one of them gets the hiccups a whole lot of boisterous hiccupping by everyone follows. Aaron Zenz provides the perfect accompaniment to these playful moments with The Hiccupotamus— a delightful picture book chronicling one poor hippo’s trouble-causing hiccups.
Told in four-line rhyming stanzas, Zenz meets the challenge of finding words to rhyme with hippopotamus and therapy, by simply playing with language (like preschoolers are so fond of doing as well!) and creating his own silly, yet familiar-enough sounding words like bottomus and nightmareapy. I am a personal fan of books that get children giggling around funny words that stretch their imagination, and this one definitely falls into that category! As anyone who has ever had those hard-to-kick hiccups knows, when you’re really desperate to be free from all that hiccupping, you’ll try just about anything, and The Hiccupotamus is no different. We have the joy of watching the mostly disastrous trials play out, all the while crossing our fingers for our new hippo friend.
With a palette of bright, popping colors and cartoonish characters complete with big round eyes and adorable expressions, The Hiccupotamus is a wonderful addition to any fun-loving preschooler’s collection.
Now for the best part- giveaway time! One lucky winner will receive 2 signed copies of The Hiccupotamus- one to keep and one to share with a friend! If you’d like to win, please leave a comment her telling us about your best hiccup-dissolving solution? (US residents only, please.)
This contest is now closed. Thanks for entering!
The winner of last week’s giveaway Crossing Washington Square is #27 Melanie.
Also, please feel free to browse the current blog tour for The Hiccupotamus– more details can be found on Aaron Zenz’s blog, Bookie Woogie.
Dawn swears by holding your breath while hopping on one foot and winking in an alternating pattern to get rid of the hiccups. She likes to spout other nonsense at her blog as well, my thoughts exactly.
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The only thing that works for hiccups is eating a spoonful of peanut butter. Unless you are allergic to peanuts, then I don’t know what to do…
we love to eat peanut butter to get rid our our hiccups.
Drink a glass of water from the “wrong side” of the cup…worked really well until i got so good at it that i didn’t have to concentrate anymore…
Cold Water helps me. But it’s gotta be cold.
I was hiccuping away when my hubby crept up behind me and scared the pudding out of me.Voila no more hiccups 🙂
My grandmother used to say holding your breath and swallowing 7 times would do it… it doesn’t work for me (nothing does), but she swore by it!
My friend swears that if you stare at the sky while chanting “elephant” it will stop the hiccups…oh wait, that might be for sneezing. Well, it couldn’t hurt either way!
My daughter thinks that I have the secret cure by “tricking” her hiccups … which basically means that I try and make her hiccup on command which she can’t do. I don’t think it’s a very successful remedy, but she seems to like it. 🙂
My oldest daughter has a thing for hippos, and she absolutely adores this book! We keep it in the car as one of her “on the go” selections.
I usually try to forget about the hiccups and then they’ll go away. It’s sometimes hard to forget something that you’re trying hard to forget, so I’ll try the peanut butter remedy suggested above next time!
Holding your breath seems to work at our house 🙂 What a cute book!
My husband’s tried and true technique is to put a knife in a glass of water and drink it backward. The only reason I think he stops hiccuping at all is because he’s concentrating so hard on not stabbing himself with the knife. 🙂
I take a small packet of sugar and pour the whole thing near the back of my tongue – the hiccups usually go away, and I have a nice sugar buzz as a bonus! LOVE The Hiccupotamus, and I can’t wait for Mr. Zenz’s next creation!
This trick ALWAYS works….go to sleep. When you wake up the hiccups will be gone. Plus who couldn’t use a few hours of extra sleep every now and then. Just think of a case of hiccups as your bodies way of telling you to take a nap.
Well, I’ve tried holding my breath as long as possible and drinking water and even trying to have someone scare me. But mostly I think they just go away when I ignore them!
Standing on your head and drinking water or a spoonful of sugar. 😉 We don’t often have the hiccups in our house, sadly.
My fail proof method is to get a mouth full of water, lean over until my top half is upside down and then swallow. Sometimes it takes a couple of tries, but it always works for me!
Take two deep breaths and then two big drinks of water, all while holding your breath. Seems to work at least 50% of the time!
Breathing into a bag is my only way to get rid of the hiccupps.
I can’t wait to read this book…and I certainly do enjoy reading the authors interviews…a riot.
(tehehehehe)
I just hold my breath for several seconds and it stops!
I find it interesting that you are the author on this blog that I keep coming to time after time!
I really enjoyed reading this book to my pre-k students. For days they went around pretending they had the hiccups.
I wish we’d had all these tricks to try when dad had the hiccups for seven days!
Our almost three year old Beckett told me the other day that he had hiccups. I asked him if they went away and he said, “Yes, I breaved (breathed) them gone”. I have to agree I use deep controlled breathing to get rid of my hiccups too. I can’t believe he figured that out on his own.
We would LOVE these. I’d give the other one to my niece!
Pinching the skin between my thumb and index finger often works for me! Sara
I have 4 children and I give them a teaspoon of sugar, then once dissolved in their mouth, I have them hold their breath (as long as they can) and do jumping jacks at the same time. They normally end up laughing after holding their breath; most likely because I am laughing at them:)(it’s not easy to hold your breath and do jumping jacks). I am not sure which of the combination of things works or if it’s the entire combination. In any case, they are getting exercise, and sending endorphins to themselves through the laughter, while the hiccups mysteriously disappear.
Try bending over and drinking water upside down. Thanks for the giveaway.
In college I had the hiccups really bad during class. My friend told me to just relax and they would go away. I thought that sounded completely stupid. So I made a big show of taking a huge breath and relaxing my body until it was limp… and I didn’t hiccup anymore!
My sons would love this book!
The only thing that really works for me to stop my hiccups is for someone to scare the bejeezus out of me. Thanks for this giveaway!
Sip a mouth full of water then swallow it while bending over so your head is upside down.
We’re big fans of the ‘hold your breath’ method at our house. It’s easy to do anywhere, and you don’t end up spilling water all over yourself.
Great giveaway- I love the idea of a book to share- especially such a cute book!
Thanks
artandjen at juno dot com
I’ve never actually found something that worked, but the weirdest one I heard and tried was to light a match, blow it out, dip it in a glass of water and then drink the water.
My hubby gets the hiccups pretty badly, he has to lay flat on his back on the floor and totally relax!
When I get the hiccups, I have to hold my breath while puffing out my stomach, for two hiccups, and sometimes it gets rid of them.
To get rid of hiccups I take a drink of water and hold it in my mouth for a while before swallowing it. If all else fails, we sometimes use the “scaring the person with the hiccups” trick but try to do it without scaring the person too badly. The book sounds great—my grandsons would love it! Thanks for the giveaway.
Fill a cup with water, lean down and then drink it upside down!