Fiona the Hippo Review & Giveaway

Fiona the Hippo
by Richard Cowdrey
Zonderkidz (August 7, 2018)
Audience: Ages 4 to 8
Fiction * Animals * Hippos
GoodReads | WorldCat | IndieBound
 

Thank you to Zonderkidz for partnering with Kid Lit Frenzy to host the giveaway! For details, please see the rules below.

About the book:
Fiona the Hippo, by New York Times bestselling artist Richard Cowdrey of Bad Dog, Marley fame, tells the story of Fiona, the adorable internet sensation from the Cincinnati Zoo who captured hearts around the world with her inspiring story and plucky personality.

Born prematurely, at only 29 pounds, Fiona was not expected to live. But her spunk and determination helped her thrive and become a happy, healthy hippopotamus. With every challenge she faced, Fiona let out a snort, wiggled her ears, and said "I've got this." And she did! In this delightful story, inspired by the real adventure of this heroic hippo, join Fiona and her lovable animal friends at the zoo as she is introduced to the world in this whimsical and inspiring tale of perseverance and friendship.

Quick thoughts on the book: 
Yep, I am one of those suckers for a baby animal defies the odds to survive story. The story of the grieving Orca mother who carried her dead calf for 17 days had me sobbing. The before and after pictures of rescued dogs choke me up. The tiny kitten that requires constant feeding and an incubator to survive has me cheering for a success story. So, of course a premature baby hippo would certainly catch my attention. 

Fiona the tiny hippo caught the attention of many people who cheered on each milestone that she accomplished. Cowdrey's fictionalized tale of Fiona's spunky determination will draw in and entertain young readers. As Fiona is cheered on by the other animals in the zoo, children will join in and celebrate the tiny hippo's journey. 

For videos of Fiona from her home at the Cincinnati Zoo, check out the video below. 

Cincinnati Zoo: Baby Hippo Fiona's Special Moments: Never-before-seen Video

Pair Fiona the Hippo with Saving Fiona for a fiction & nonfiction pair up. Look for this book at your local indie bookstore or community library. 

About the Author: Richard Cowdrey's favorite things to draw and paint are the common things seen everywhere in nature. He especially enjoys capturing the expressions, eyes, and gestures of both humans and animals. Drawing and painting Fiona was challenging as the hippopotamus is a very unique yet beautiful creature! Richard's bestselling children's books include Legend of the Candy Cane, Bad Dog, Marley, and A Very Marley Christmas.

Enter the Giveaway:
Fiona’s Pool Party! Throw the best pool party ever for your little zoo animal!

Winner receives:
a copy of Fiona the Hippo,
a Hippo pool toy and all the zoo friends —just be careful not to get your new book wet!

Giveaway open to US addresses only.
Prizing and samples provided by Zonderkidz.

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It's Monday! What are you reading? From Picture Books to YA - 8/13/18

It's Monday! What are you Reading? is a meme hosted by Kathryn at Book Date.  Kellee Moye, of Unleashing Readers, and  Jen Vincent of Teach Mentor Texts decided to give It's Monday! What Are You Reading? a kid lit focus. We encourage everyone who participates to visit at least three of the other kid lit book bloggers that link up and leave comments for them.

Here's what jumped out of the pile these past couple of weeks....

Little Whale by Jo Weaver (Peachtree Publishers, October 18, 2018) - In light of the recent story of the Orca mother grieving her dead calf for 17 days, I think I was even more emotional when reading this book. Mark your calendar for October when this book comes out.

The Rough Patch by Brian Lies (Greenwillow Books, August 14, 2018) - What a beautiful story of loss, grief, and new beginnings. The illustrations are lovely. 

Good Dog by Cori Doerrfeld (HarperCollins, August 7, 2018) - A simple and wonderful story about a little dog and the family that rescues him. 

Eat Pete by Michael Rex (Nancy Paulsen Books, August 14, 2018) - A humorous story of friendship and why eating a friend might not be such a good idea. 

Stop, Go, Yes, No! A Story of Opposites by Mike Twohy (Balzer & Bray, August 14, 2018) - Simple text and clear concept book of opposites. 

Nothing Stopped Sophie: The Story of Unshakable Mathematician Sophie Germain by Cheryl Bardoe; Illustrated by Barbara McClintock (Little Brown and Company, June 12, 2018) - I love biographies about individuals that I know so little about and yet can be inspired by their lives and passions. 

A Bunch of Punctuation - Poems selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins; Illustrated by Serge Bloch (Wordsong, August 7, 2018) - A fabulous collection of poems on punctuation. 

In case you missed these posts....

It's Show and Tell, Dexter! - Review & Giveaway

Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge: Books to Celebrate NASA's 60 Years and Counting

Adrian Simcox Does NOT Have a Horse - Blog Tour & Guest Post

Nerdy Book Club: Ten Early Readers and Transitional Chapter Books Not to Be Overlooked

So, what are you reading? 

Blog Tour: Adrian Simcox Does NOT Have a Horse

When I first saw a very, very early version of Adrian Simcox Does NOT Have a Horse, I fell in love with the book. It is such a beautiful book. Today, I welcome Marcy Campbell and Corrine Luyken to Kid Lit Frenzy. Thank you Marcy and Corrine for sharing about your collaboration for this book specifically, what was the hardest concept to get across in both text and art. 

Corinna: When I first read Marcy’s manuscript, I loved the story’s themes of compassion and empathy and appreciated how the book addressed class in an indirect but honest way. I also loved that it had no art notes! Because Marcy never dictated whether the horse should be shown, she left a great deal of room for me to imagine my own way into the story.

Early on, I thought that if I was going to show the horse, it could be hidden in the environment around Adrian. Marcy’s original text said the horse was “golden with a white mane,” and I tried using a porch light to be the horse’s eye and the peeling paint on the side of his house to make a horse silhouette. But once I started drawing golden grasses and fences, I realized that I could use negative space and patterns to make a horse! By using negative space, the horse could simultaneously exist and not exist, depending on how you looked at it. Which seemed perfect.

Marcy: Once Corinna decided to use negative space to create the horse, she asked whether the horse could be “white with a golden mane” instead, and I agreed. An imaginary horse could be any color at all, as far as I was concerned, and I loved Corinna’s idea!

There were other small tweaks to the text throughout, but I would say the trickiest spots to get right, in both text and illustration, were the first and last spreads. In the first spread, we felt that we needed to establish Adrian as a dreamer, but our original text and illustration left a bit too much room for interpretation. (It’s a lunch room scene, and Adrian is sitting by himself, but initially, it wasn’t clear why.) We altered the text and illustration to make quite clear that Adrian is lost in his imagination.

At the end of the book, our editor thought we might need another line to explicitly show Chloe’s change of heart. I liked the last line as it was and suggested we accomplish this goal via the art, with Chloe somehow creating an imaginary horse of her own. Corinna ran with that idea, and the end result is quite wonderful, with the two children joining together to create a horse out of negative space. The end papers are beautiful as well, two horses touching heads, symbolizing the “meeting of the minds” that has occurred over the course of the book.

BOOK DESCRIPTION: A classic in the making, this heartwarming story about empathy and imagination is one that families will treasure for years to come.

Adrian Simcox tells anyone who will listen that he has a horse--the best and most beautiful horse anywhere.

But Chloe does NOT believe him. Adrian Simcox lives in a tiny house. Where would he keep a horse? He has holes in his shoes. How would he pay for a horse?

The more Adrian talks about his horse, the angrier Chloe gets. But when she calls him out at school and even complains about him to her mom, Chloe doesn't get the vindication she craves. She gets something far more important.

Written with tenderness and poignancy and gorgeously illustrated, this book will show readers that kindness is always rewarding, understanding is sweeter than judgment, and friendship is the best gift one can give.

About the author: Marcy Campbell lives in Ohio with her family and menagerie of rescued pets. Her writing for adults has been published widely in journals and magazines, including Salon. She grew up on a farm filled with cows, chickens, cats, and dogs, but she never had a horse. Adrian Simcox Does NOT Have a Horse is her debut picture book. You can visit her at www.marcycampbell.com.

About the illustrator: Corinna Luyken grew up in different cities along the West Coast, and after studying at Middlebury College, she settled in Washington State, where she draws inspiration from nature, her family, and the human form. Her debut picture book, The Book of Mistakes, received four starred reviews and has been praised by Entertainment Weekly, The Wall Street Journal, Nerdy Book Club, and more.

Check out the other stops in the blog tour...

WEEK ONE
August 6 – Lost in Storyland – Personal Story + Q&A
August 7 – The Readathon – Review
August 8 – Happily Ever Elephants – Review
August 9 – Read. Learn. Repeat – Review
August 10 – Kid Lit Frenzy – Author & Illustrator Guest Post

WEEK TWO
August 13 – Here Wee Read – Review
August 14 – DoodleMom – Review + Interactive Moodboard
August 15 – Eastern Sunset Reads – Review
August 16 – Critter Lit – Interview
August 17 – Unleashing Readers – Dual Review + Teacher’s Tools for Navigation

Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge: Books to Celebrate NASA's 60 Years and Counting

"From 2018 through 2022, NASA is marking a series of important milestones – the 60th anniversary of the agency’s founding by Congress in 1958, and the 50th anniversary of the Apollo missions that put a dozen Americans on the Moon between July 1969 and December 1972. Celebrations already are under way. Some are complete, some are scheduled in the coming months, and some are still being planned." - www.nasa.gov

As I was pulling together titles for a new release post, I realized that there were several that celebrated space exploration. So, this month's new release post is in honor of NASA's 60 years and counting. Here are some upcoming releases that may inspire you to dream of space travel. 

Countdown: 2979 Days to the Moon by Suzanne Slade; Illustrations by Thomas Gonzalez (Peachtree Books, September 1, 2018) - Check out my review of Countdown, here.

Path to the Stars: My Journey From Girl Scout to Rocket Scientist by Sylvia Acevedo (Clarion Books, September 4, 2018)

Above and Beyond: NASA's Journey to Tomorrow by Discovery, Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich (Feiwel & Friends, September 11, 2018)

The Penguin Book of Outer Space Exploration: NASA and the Incredible Story of Human Spaceflight by John Logsdon (Editor), Bill Nye (Foreword) - (Penguin Classics, September 11, 2018)

Science Comics: Solar System: Our Place in Space by Rosemary Mosco; Illustrated by Jon Chad (First Second, September 18, 2018)

Apollo 8: The Mission That Changed Everything by Martin W. Sandler (Candlewick Press, October 9, 2018)

Though most of these books include lots of photographs and illustrations, the above titles are geared for readers 10 and up. Now I need to go in search of titles for a younger audience. 

Don't forget to link up your nonfiction reviews...

Book Review & Giveaway: It's Show and Tell, DEXTER!

It's Show and Tell, DEXTER!
by Lindsay Ward
Two Lions (July 17, 2018)
Fiction * Dinosaurs * School
Audience: PreK to 2nd grade
Amazon | WorldCat

Description from GoodReads: 
Dexter T. Rexter is going to school. But will anyone like him?

Tomorrow is the biggest event ever in Dexter’s life: his best friend, Jack, is taking him to school for Show and Tell Day! Dexter has been getting ready for weeks. But now he’s a little nervous. What if the other kids don’t like him? So Dexter decides to come up with a plan. He’ll wear a costume. Dinosaurs in bunny ears look good, right? He’ll recite state capitals starting with…uh…ah…er. Then he realizes something. He can’t dance. He can’t recite things. He doesn’t have ANY skills. What’s a dino to do?

This comical, interactive tale of belonging, friendship, anticipation, and first-day-at-school jitters lets readers experience the excitement and nervousness along with Dexter—and even offer him a little advice along the way.

Check out the official book trailer:

Quick thoughts on the book:
When we first read about Dexter, the toy dinosaur, and his pal Jack, we learned about their friendship. Check out my review of Don't Forget DEXTER!, here. 

As we begin the second book in the DEXTER! series, we learn that Jack and Dexter are still friends and their special, made up song is still being sung. However, now Dexter is preparing for a visit to Jack's school. But how do you prepare for a trip to school for  Show & Tell? Well Dexter has a plan. 

As Dexter thinks more about going to school, he wonders if he will be enough? Will he be funny enough? Will he be entertaining enough? Does he need a costume? 

Just like the first book, Dexter is narrator and provides us with the perspective of beloved toy. It also does a great job of talking about emotions and particularly how Dexter feels about his relationship with Jack and also what it might be like to go to school. Ward again captures the inner emotional world of a young child and presents it in a very relatable manner.  

Dexter is out just in time for back to school and makes for a fun read aloud. Look for a copy of It's Show and Tell, DEXTER! at a community bookstore or public library. 

About the creator: Lindsay Ward is the author of the Dexter T. Rexter book Don’t Forget Dexter! Though she never got to bring an orange dinosaur to Show and Tell Day, she did once take all four albums of her sticker collection. She is also the author and illustrator of Brobarians, Henry Finds His Word, and When Blue Met Egg. Her book Please Bring Balloons was also made into a play.

Most days you can find Lindsay with her family, writing and sketching at her home in Peninsula, Ohio. Learn more about her at www.LindsayMWard.com or on Twitter: @lindsaymward.

Giveaway:
Complete the Rafflecopter to win a copy of It's Show and Tell, Dexter! Winner must be 13 years old or older and have a US mailing address.

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