Synopsis
The Fiona the Hippo book series, by Christian illustrator Richard Cowdrey, is inspired by a real-life baby hippopotamus born at the Cincinnati Zoo in January 2017. Fiona the Hippo and Meet Fiona the Hippo introduce Fiona and recount actual events that happened. These books tell about her premature birth, her developmental milestones, the zoo team that raised her, and the millions of fans that rooted for her. The rest of the series contains fictional stories about a personified Fiona with her personified zoo animal friends.
In the first published fiction book, A Very Fiona Christmas, little Fiona asks her friends what is Christmas. She discovers Christmas is not only enjoying fun festivities but also showing love to a new friend. Fiona recruits her friends in Fiona Saves the Day to rescue a baby penguin from a ledge. On her first birthday in Happy Birthday, Fiona, Fiona is so excited by the photoshoots and fan mail and gifts that she forgets about her friends. She soon realizes her special day is empty without her friends and invites them to a party where she gives gifts to them.
Later, in Fiona’s Train Ride, the little hippo learns how to drive the zoo train so she and her friends can visit the newborn baby red panda. In the newly released Fiona Plays Soccer, she and Flamingo find a soccer ball in a bush and start kicking it. The kicking soon turns into a traveling game as other animals join in when the ball bounces from one friend’s habitat to another’s.
A new book, You’ve Got This, Fiona: A Book About Change is scheduled to be released in August 2023. A complete listing of books in this series can be found on Zondervan’s website: https://www.zondervan.com/p/fiona-book/#books.
Reading Level
This series is just right for kindergartners and first graders. Guided Reading Level and Lexile Framework for Reading ratings are not available for the entire series. Eight of the Fiona the Hippo books are rated level 1 in the I-Can-Read system and are available in paperback. Level 1 I-Can-Read books are designed for beginning independent readers and are written with simple concepts, familiar words, and short sentences.
Fiona the Hippo books are available at local public libraries as well as bookstores and online retailers.
My Opinion
When you were a child, after an outing to your local zoo, did you wonder if animals came to life and sang and danced after the human visitors and caretakers left?
The Fiona the Hippo series transports kindergartners and first graders to a special zoo where animals talk and engage in human-like activities. The colorful and realistic illustrations, along with recognition of favorite zoo animals, draw children into the stories. Talking animals, playing and solving problems, capture and hold their attention until the end.
While immersed in this special zoo, young readers learn various life lessons that covertly align with God’s Word. They learn from Fantastic Fiona that every creature, whether animal or human being, is special and unique. In books like Fiona Helps a Friend and Fiona Gets the Sniffles, Fiona shows readers how to recognize when a friend is in trouble and to recruit others to help the friend. Children learn, in Happy Birthday, Fiona, that true happiness on a birthday is not from gifts or fame but from celebrating with friends. Throughout the stories, Fiona shows children how to explore, meet new friends, and approach every situation with a can-do attitude and kindness.
Unlike some recently released children’s books, the Fiona the Hippo series does not contain current cultural ideas. Each book is filled with childhood innocence and fun. The books capture children’s imagination while helping them learn to read independently.
Carissa Excelsis is a storyteller and a mom. She has been telling original stories ever since she captivated her kindergarten classmates with her story about a mama bunny going to the hospital to have a baby bunny. She loves to capture children’s imagination through oral and written stories. Prior to being a mom, she created product branding strategies and wrote marketing copy. She hopes one day to have her children’s stories and God-stories published.
