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 The 27th Annual African Hippopotamus Race
By Morris Lurie

A Puffin Book
ISBN 0-14-034297-4

Edward turns eight. His family took a photo of him and measured his weight. Edward is celebrating his birthday by going into the river and swimming.

His grandfather was surprised because he swam fast. His grandfather trained him a lot. About two weeks later his grandfather registered him into the twenty seventh annual African hippopotamus race.

After that Edward trained very hard. His dad bought Edward a big red bus. When he got back to Africa, he didn't like red so he painted it yellow and ripped out the seats and put new seats in and one chandelier to light the place up.

The last day before the race at the Zamboola river Edward didn't train. He just relaxed and didn't waste any energy at all. That night they were going to the Zamboola river and Edward was asleep in the bed on the bus.

In the morning they were there. When he woke up he smelt pancakes and that is his favourite food. After he had eaten his breakfast he went down to the president's tent of the twenty seventh annual African hippopotamus race and presented him to the president.

They went down to the singlet holding tent and got a singlet number 65.

When Edward was in the line he met a friend called Barney.

He went to the starting line and all these people that he didn't know were cheering for him. The president came in a little boat and told all of the hippopotami through the megaphone the rules. Then they had the race and there was cheating but in spite of all the trouble Edward won the race! 


Retold by Kieran and Evie 3S

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This page was last modified on 4th June, 1998