Pygmy Hippo Hand-Puppet Cloth Book

Pygmy Hippo Hand-Puppet Cloth Book — the animal nobody else's baby has

A cloth book with a pygmy hippo puppet built into the back of it. Your hand goes inside, the ears wiggle, the paws wave, and the story happens between the two of you rather than on the page. Eight soft fabric pages, rhymes to read aloud, and an animal most adults could not draw from memory.

That is the reason to choose this one. Every baby in Britain gets a lion, a giraffe and an elephant. Almost none get a pygmy hippo — and a child who grows up knowing what one is has something the other children in the nursery do not.

🦛 Why the odd animal is the better animal

First animal books are the same eight creatures over and over. There is nothing wrong with a lion, but a baby does not need four of them. An unfamiliar animal gives you something to actually talk about, gives grandparents a reason to ask, and gives a two-year-old a word to show off with. Make Believe Ideas put the pygmy hippo in the range because it is one of the world's most at-risk species, and small children turn out to be rather good at caring about that.

📖 A first book that cannot be destroyed

Cloth pages, so nothing tears, nothing has a sharp corner, and nothing is spoiled when it goes in the mouth — which it will. Eight pages is about right for the attention span of someone under one: you reach the end before they lose interest, and then you start again, which is what they wanted anyway. The puppet works on its own too, without the book being opened at all.

👼 It goes on the buggy

Roughly 18cm square and very light, with a loop that attaches to a pram, a buggy or a car seat. Which makes it a going-out toy rather than a nursery-shelf one, and a puppet you can reach for at a bus stop earns its keep in a way one at home in a drawer does not.

🌍 And it funds conservation work

The Zoo Crew range is made by Make Believe Ideas with London Zoo, a ZSL conservation zoo, and ZSL state that every purchase supports their conservation work in the UK and around the world. As reasoning for a first gift goes, that is a good deal better than another plastic rattle — and with this animal, the conservation point is not decoration.

What we like about it

• A soft toy and a first book in one, usable from the day you come home
• An animal that is not in every other baby book — the one people remember
• The grown-up works the puppet, which answers the "what do I actually do with a newborn" problem
• Cloth throughout — nothing to tear, nothing with a corner
• Eight pages, which is the right length at this age
• Attaches to a buggy, pram or car seat
• Made with London Zoo; every purchase supports ZSL conservation work

Specification

• Suitable from: birth
• Format: soft cloth book with an integrated hand puppet
• Pages: 8 cloth pages
• Size: approx. 18cm x 18cm
• Attachment: loop for a buggy, pram or car seat
• Care: surface clean only — no washing instruction is printed on it, so we would not risk a machine or a soak
• Range: Zoo Crew by Make Believe Ideas, made with London Zoo, a ZSL conservation zoo

❓ Frequently asked questions

It cannot be washed — is that a problem on a newborn toy?
It is the thing worth knowing, so here it is first. There is no care label on it, so our advice is surface clean only: a damp cloth on the spot, dealt with straight away, then left to dry flat. A puppet book stands up to that better than a comforter does, because it is a thing you hold and perform with rather than something that gets carried about and dribbled on all day. None of the Zoo Crew range can go in a machine — the plush animals are surface wash only too. If what you want is something to be properly chewed and properly cleaned, a silicone teether is the honest answer.

Will my baby know what a pygmy hippo is?
No, and neither did we until this range arrived. That is fine — a baby does not know what a lion is either. What matters at this age is a face, a texture and your voice; the animal is for you to name. By the time the word means something, they will have had it said to them a few hundred times, which is exactly how the unusual ones stick.

Can a newborn really use this?
They can be read to, which is the whole idea. For the first couple of months your baby is the audience: they watch the hippo move and listen to your voice. Around three to four months they start grabbing at the pages, and by six months they are turning them and chewing the corners. It is one of very few things on this site that is genuinely useful on day one and still in use at a year.

Does it make a good gift?
One of the best in this range, precisely because it is the unexpected one. If you are the fourth person buying for the same baby, this is how you avoid being the fourth lion. Soft enough to post, no batteries, and the conservation link gives you something to write in the card. For a bigger present, pair it with the matching Pygmy Hippo Plush Toy — Honey, same range, same animal.

🐾 The four puppet books

Same format, same size, four quite different performances:

• Pygmy Hippo — this one. The one nobody else's baby has.
• Lion — the loud one. Roars, giggles, the biggest reaction of the four.
• Giraffe — the tallest, with the most movement in the neck.
• Sloth — the slow one, and the one we would choose for bedtime.

The rest of the range: eight Zoo Crew plush animals, four clip-on buggy toys with teething rings, and two board books — Never Touch the Zoo Crew and Don't Feed the Animals.

Our guides to sensory cloth books for babies and the best toys for babies under 6 months go into more detail.

❤️ From our family to yours

Carefully chosen products for babies, toddlers and parents. Browse more baby books and the rest of the Make Believe Ideas range — free UK delivery on orders over £25.