John Burningham retells a shorter, snappier version of a West African trickster tale he originally illustrated in 1968 (for a text by Letta Schatz called The Extraordinary Tug-of-War). A beleaguered Hare figures out a way to deliver a comeuppance to his two tormentors. It's a testament to the artist's craftsmanship that his illustrations hold up 45 years later.
Only in the opening illustration do Hare, Hippopotamus and Elephant appear placidly standing together. "Often, when Hippopotamus and Elephant had nothing better to do, they would be mean to Hare and tease him," the text begins. Hippopotamus calls Hare "a tiny, wimpy thing" with "ridiculous ears." Elephant tells Hare he's a "feeble idiot." When Hare, fed up, challenges Elephant to a tug-of-war, he calls Hare a "sickly little twerp. Burningham's illustrations emphasize the animals' relative sizes, making Hare's proposition look preposterous to readers. Yet Hare outsmarts his two tormentors and uses their puffed-up pride to pit them against each other.
As Hare carries one end of the rope from Hippopotamus to Elephant, out of sight of one another, Burningham luxuriates in a lush landscape of deep greens and blues. An aerial view depicts the great distance between the two giant animals as they labor under skies that turn to the tomato-red of sunset, then the dark of night. Hare eggs them on ("Oh, Hippopotamus, aren't you tired yet?") until they surrender, then skitters safely away. The moral--that brains beat brawn--also survives some four decades later. --Jennifer M. Brown, children's editor, Shelf Awareness