Rhino? What Rhino?

Caryl Hart (text) & Sarah Horne (illustrations)
(Hodder Children’s Books)

Rhino lives at the zoo and is rather bored and lonely so he decides to squeeze through the bars and sneak out unnoticed. He soon finds shelter in a nearby farm, but straight away, and unbeknown to him, he manages to create absolute chaos. The farm animals, who are getting the blame for the all the broken and missing bits around the place, are not one bit amused. So they decide someone needs to teach Rhino a thing or two about manners and living in a community. But will they make poor Rhino go back to his lonely life in the zoo?

We LOVE this picture book in the Library Mice household! The perfect rhyming text and clever repetition (Rhino? What rhino? That cannot be true. There’s only one rhino and he’s in the zoo) create a winning combination for a story which is unbelievable fun to read aloud. I dare anybody to be able to resist making silly voices when reading this at storytime. It is energetic and uplifting; every time I read this book, it leaves me in a happy mood! Caryl Hart is a natural with words; the text flows beautifully.
The colourful artwork by Sarah Horne is lively and zany and is perfectly in tune with the text and this creates, overall, a smashing picture book. We have only just discovered it and yet it is already a Library Mice family favourite!