Hiccups

While adults may be used to getting the hiccups, it can be a disturbing predicament for children. Author and illustrator Holly Sterling relays the frustration of Ruby, a young girl trying to cure her adorable doggie, Oscar, of the hiccups through any means possible – dancey-dancing, jumpity-jumping, and slurpity-slurping. But nothing works, not even her magic wand and wizard’s suit. Finally, Ruby dons her cat costume, which scares the hiccups right out of Oscar.

A nod to Holly Sterling for not encouraging the reader to scare the victim of hiccups – that could be troublesome. Rather, Holly implies that Oscar was scared, even if that wasn’t Ruby’s intent. Simple, bold, vividly drawn digital illustrations in pink, purple, aqua, olive, and pale blue relay movement and action to this quick-paced story for the very young, mixing illustrations of the figures on white backgrounds or in their home, where thoughtful details are fun to spot.

Suspenseful page turns reside at both the front and the back of the book, where the hiccup predicament begins all over again when Ruby gets the hiccups too.

Don’t miss the dinosaur hiding throughout and the nod to the cat in the endpapers at the back – very fun!