Photo: Courtesy Richard Cowdrey/Zonderkidz
Cowdrey, an Ohio resident, came up with the idea after seeing all of the buzz around the cute creature, who wasborn premature and defied oddsto survive and thrive.
Courtesy Richard Cowdrey/Zonderkidz
“I felt a lot of pride and interest in her story,” Cowdrey tells PEOPLE. “I’m from Cincinnati, I grew up going to the zoo with my dad. It just hit me that with her backstory and personality, she’s the perfect character for a children’s book series.”
To get started, Cowdrey got to do what every Fiona fan dreams of — have a private one-on-one meeting with her. “I even pet her on the head,” he shares. “It was really cool.”
Their get-together helped him create his own Fiona, illustrating her “in a way that makes her fun and cute,” Cowdrey says. “It’s funny when you go to illustrate, especially with animals, because you see them, then sit down to draw and they’re very different looking creatures.”
Cowdrey sticks close to Fiona’s own life story in the book, softening hersomewhat scary arrival and early daysfor his young audience. “You see a scene with a nurse holding her, other nurses standing around with their iPhones taking photos of her,” he explains. “But the excitement of the other zoo animals becomes the focus. You see herfinding out who her parents are, since she was separated from them at birth. There are a lot of sweet moments. We don’t want to shock kids.”
“It’s cool how her popularity crosses the board in terms of diversity: age, race, American or international,” Cowdrey says. “She has been relatable to everybody.”
Fiona the Hippois available nowon Amazon.com.
source: people.com
