They are famously fat--cumbersome, lethargic, and oddly charming for the way they lounge around half-submerged in muddy pools all day. Hippos are gregarious herbivores that don't much like the heat, but as Edgar Williams shows in this colorful book, they can also be quite ill-tempered, and their huge mouths, sharp tusks, and powerful jaws can cut a small boat right in half. Taking readers into the swampy lands of Africa--as well as a few other surprising places--Hippopotamus tells the story of these iconic lumbering beasts.

As Williams recounts, while Hippos are only found in...