When you can't stand split pea soup and you can't stand to hurt your friend Martha's feelings after she's made pot after pot of it, what else can you do but hide the soup so she thinks you ate it? And if your loafers are the only place available, well, it's all in the name of friendship. Friendship is friendship even if you are hippopotamuses. At least that's the way George looks at things and even though he doesn't fool Martha, all ends happily with chocolate chip cookies instead of split pea soup.
Friendship proves a delicate thing even when it exists between not so delicate creatures as George and Martha. Loving and lovable a hippopotamus might well be, but delicate he is not. Even so, George and Martha seem to know full well the joys and delights of having a friend to cheer you and care, someone who will tell you the truth and go to great lengths to spare your feelings.
In his first picture book, James Marshall charms us all with his wonderfully appealing characters, George and Martha, and his own special view of friendship.
