On Sandra Boynton

When Sandra Boynton brings her “A” game, all parts of the text are undeniable. An example: “The Belly Button Book.” The title already deserves a Pulitzer.

A Boynton one-two punch means that the opening lines will *match* the greatness of the title:

This tiny hippopotamus has something *small* to say.

And if you listen now, he’ll say it right away. (BEE-BO!)

You may not know what BEE-BO means, or maybe you’ve forgotten.

It’s just the tiny hippo way of saying BELLY BUTTON.

Harold Bloom speaks of the “anxiety of influence”: Virgil rewrites Homer, John Milton rewrites Virgil, and so on. I like to think that Sandra Boynton—with her hippos—is choosing to rewrite James Marshall. Famously, Marshall showed his hippos in bathing suits. And Sandra Boynton sends her own hippos to “Belly Button Beach.”

We hippos love our belly b’s…..

They’re round, and cute, and funny….

And there’s a place we take them to….

When summer days are sunny…..

Finally, Boynton “lands the plane” by invoking Ecclesiastes. For everything, there is a season.

We sing this song on summer nights, or when it’s hot outside.

But never in cold wintertime, when belly buttons hide.

No, never in cold wintertime, when belly buttons hide. (BYE-BYE, BEE-BO.)

The children in my house speak often about “the bee-bo,” and I think there’s no greater compliment to Sandra Boynton. A goddess among mortals.

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