It's been seven years since Brien McMahon High School graduate and West Norwalk resident Jeremi Bigosinski launched his own publishing house, along with his first children's picture book entitled "Adventures in Hippoville: Harry Hippo's Flight." Almost a decade later, Bigosinski will celebrate the release of his second book, "Adventures in Hippoville: Harry Hippo's Lake Party," at the Rowayton Library on Saturday at 10:30 a.m.

Though a Fulbright Fellowship in Poland and the pursuit of a BFA in sculpture at the University of Connecticut delayed the release of the second tale in the life of Harry Hippo, the wait has been well worth it, Bigosinski said.

From the beginning, for him it has always been about the hippos.

"When I was still in high school taking advanced placement art classes, I started doing some illustrations of hippos. I also started doing these vocabulary journals with illustrations, as well as some birthday cards. My art teacher John Tate stressed getting them published," he recalled.

"Then I ventured out to start my own self-publishing company."

In 2002, he launched his publishing house, Hippoville Publishing LLC, which is currently located in Rowayton. The road to success, though, wasn't without bumps. Bigosinski learned that the bindings of his first book weren't at the level major bookstores sought out, and he was forced to rely heavily on word of mouth to gain interest in. Slowly but surely, however, Harry Hippo's story got out.

"Originally, I also set up an online store, but it was too much overhead."Now, I'm operating much more like a traditional publisher. Hopefully I'll be able to get a distributor."

He added, "Having a distributor is one of the gold standards of being recognized in this industry."

Bigosinski is now selling books through Amazon.com, the popular online shopping Web site.

His love of hippopotami has kept him going all along. While attending UConn, he visited local social organizations in a hippo costume to cheer up kids. In 2006, while pursuing his fellowship in Warsaw, Poland, he cast a half-ton bronze sculpture of a hippopotamus. Actively engaged in hippo conservation, he is now a 2010 masters candidate in landscape architecture at the Rhode Island School of Design.

In Bigosinski's newest book, Harry Hippo and Icdabaa find new friends in their breakfast. Grateful for the rescue, the animal friends invite Harry to a lake party. But Harry has a problem: he can't swim.

"I want to continue this story arc so the stories have a rather significant educational message behind them," he said about a planned third book. "I don't know how many books I'll do, but I want people to be able to pick up any story and have an idea of what's going on, without necessarily having read the other books. I also want to have a strong element of continuation from one to the next."

"Adventures in Hippoville," he said, should be "edutainment" for youngsters.

"I would like to expand Hippoville," he said. "I would also like to get other authors under my wing."

Along with improving marketing for the Hippoville series, these measures, Bigosinski said, are all steps he needs to take Hippoville Publishing LLC to the next level.

For information about the book release event, contact the Rowayton Library at 838-5038. Along with a coloring activity, iced tea and watermelon -- two favorite foods of Harry Hippo and Icdabaa -- will be available to those in attendance.