Funny Little Fiona: One Healthy, Helpful Hippo!

Whether you're enjoying picture books with your own families, sharing them within your classrooms, or reading and analyzing them to inform your own efforts to write quality picture book text, let me introduce you to a little hippo who will command your attention.

ZONDERKIDS, August, 2018

Let's start with the most recent of three remarkable picture books, all about funny little Fiona. FIONA THE HIPPO is written and illustrated by New York Times bestselling illustrator Richard Cowdrey.This creative-nonfiction version of the now-famous, prematurely-born Fiona the Hippo (Cincinnati Zoo) takes a charmingly kid-friendly approach. Cowdrey views the tiny newborn's early struggles, undaunted spirit, and eventual ability to grow and thrive as seen through the imagined eyes of fellow zoo animals. Before you declare his irresistible illustrations as overly humanized, take a look at the back cover photo of Fiona and do a quick online search to see how touchingly human this hippo really seems. 

The point of view and illustrations allow Cowdrey to assign words and thoughts to little Fiona and her zoo-mates. His effective use of Fiona's repetitive mantra is one that her zoo-keeping caregivers recognized and reported from her earliest hours:

"She was ready! She let out a snort, wiggled her ears, and said, 'I've got this!'"

HMH Books for Young Readers. June, 2018

Next, take a close look at two other purely nonfiction picture books about Fiona's early life: Saving Fiona: The Story of the World’s Most Famous Baby Hippo by Thane Maynard, and Hip, Hippo, Hooray for Fiona!: A Photographic Biography
by Jan Sherbin. Using photographs from zoo personnel, this last title was actually the first, documenting the resilient spirit of the zookeepers as well as Fiona's will to survive, and thrive. A portion of the proceeds from this last book goes to the Cincinnati Zoo to support their work.

Insights Productions. October, 201

These three titles disprove the common warning in publishing that a specific subject/topic shouldn't be "overdone". In this case, each of the three titles offers a distinctly different take on sharing a remarkable story even though all are shaped around the early months of little Fiona's life.

Reading and exploring these three titles with young audiences (and older ones) provide perfect opportunities to:

1) honor each book for its own distinct strengths and appeal, 

2) compare the similarities and differences in points of view, 

3) analyze narrative text types, and 

4) consider ways to approach writing non-fiction text in various ways.

You can't go wrong with these picture books.  They are all fun-filled and smile-inducing, offer inspiring text and images, provide STEM-focused content, and are thoroughly irresistible. 

Hurry. 

Fiona's waiting for you.