I am sorry I just did not like this book. And I think it all hinges on the word “stupid”. Tortoise wants to make friends. But the elephant says he is too small. The hippo says he's not big enough. Later in the book the elephant calls the tortoise “stupid” for challenging him to tug of war. It just sits wrong with me. I see what the author was trying to do. This is a more modern, slightly different Tortoise and the Hare story, but the word choice just turned me off. I do want to give a shout out to the illustrator because they did an excellent job.