I haven't read this author's first book to be translated into English, "What You are Looking for is in the Library" because I thought there was a sad cat bit in it. But I received an email advertising this one and couldn't resist. It's a true example of the "healing novel" which is a Thing in Japan and South Korea (or at least in books from those places that are translated into English) and you can expect a gentle, community-based read with some quiet lessons. There IS in fact a cat, but it's fine, as is the hippo.

Five people, a schoolboy whose grades are dropping, a lonely mother who's failing to connect with the other school mums, a wedding planner who has gradually fallen ill and left her job, another schoolboy who faked an injury to get out of running, only to find he has an actual injury, and a magazine editor all encounter a basic hippo ride in the park local to the fancy apartment block they've all moved in to and find out through hearsay that it can work magic. Can the hippo really work magic, or does interacting with it just help them all to work their own magic in their lives? A lovely gentle book with separate stories that all overlap and join together in a well-done way: very enjoyable.

Blog review published 25 July 2025: https://librofulltime.wordpress.com/2025/07/25/book-reviews-kiley-dunbar-fixing-a-broken-heart-at-the-highland-repair-shop-and-michiko-aoyama-the-healing-hippo-of-hinode-park/

Firstly massive thank you to Penguin Random House Uk, Transworld Publishers and Doubleday for approving me to read this book. It was honestly beautiful, I have always read translated fiction but was quite set on Japanese/korean crime or thrillers. Reading this will certainly make me widen my choices in translated fiction.

This was a thought provoking easy read which just made me feel calm and happy at the end of it. Once I started it was really hard to put down. I will definitely encourage others to read it.

Thank you

What a lovely, thoughtful, uplifting book. It made a pleasant change to read something so relaxing and enjoyable. I would like to meet a hippo like that one!

I absolutely adored, i read it in one sitting! It’s warm, gentle, and quietly magical, with each interconnected story offering a little moment of healing and hope. Perfect if you’re after a comforting, feel-good read

📚 #NetGalley ARC review 📚

Title: The Healing Hippo of Hinode Park
Author: Michiko Aoyama
Release date: 14/08/25

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House UK for the chance to read this ARC ahead of its release.

Here are my thoughts...

- I read What You Are Looking For Is In The Library by this author earlier this year and it was a solid five stars for me, it just really moved me. So I was looking forward to Healing Hippo, expecting more of the same.
- It uses the same formula as many 'healing fiction' titles where multiple separate personal stories are unified by a single location, and it leads to those people connecting to each other.
- Unfortunately, I didn't feel like I related to Healing Hippo anywhere near as much as I did Library - perhaps because I don't hang around in play parks, whereas I do enjoy a library. It just didn't feel as cosy, maybe because the focal point is an outdoor location, so by definition is sometimes cold, wet, windy etc (?).
- While there is a character who acts similarly to the librarian of the first book, she didn't feel as compelling. When her connection to one of the later short story protagonists is revealed, she comes across as a completely different personality, which really threw me. I had to read back a couple of times to be sure I'd understood it correctly.
- Although they're probably no different really, I didn't feel like the individual people's stories hit me emotionally anywhere near as much as the ones in 'Library' did. For whatever reason, it felt flatter and less moving overall than the previous book. This could easily be a 'me thing' though!
- One small thing that struck me as a huge oversight: the hippo's ORANGE paint is constantly referred to...yet the book cover shows it as pink. Okay, not the biggest deal, but I found it really jarring!

All that said, it was still a pleasant read and I liked it...I think it just suffers from 'difficult second album' vibes - living up to 'Library' was always going to be a challenge, and for me it fell short 😅 I'd still definitely read any future books by Michiko Aoyama.

3/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐

#TheHealingHippoOfHinodePark #NetGalley #bookreview #reading #books #bookstagram #booklover #booknerd #bibliophile #bookworm #booksofinstagram #readersofinstagram

What a sweet book - anyone looking for a feel good book with a happy ending then this is the one for you. Following the 5 interconnecting stories, linked together by a “magical” hippo in the local park, left me feeling very positive and with warm, cozy feeling. I thought this would suit young adults in particular, although I’m not sure if it’s aimed at that market.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the advance copy.

"The Healing Hippo of Hinode Park" is a collection of short, overlapping stories about people who all live close by to a children's park and come across Kabahiko, the hippo ride. According to legend, if you touch the part of his body where you're hurting, Kabahiko will heal it. We follow these characters and the various pains (physically and emotionally) that they are going through and what happens after they ask Kabahiko for help.

This book is utterly charming! The stories are incredibly sweet and some are very moving. It's a short book so great to read if you want something fairly quick and easy. But be warned, it will make you think! Personally, I wish it had been a bit longer to include a few more details about each of the characters but that is my only criticism.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book.

Thank you Net Galley & Random House UK, Transworld Publishers for free copy of this book for an honest review

📚 The Healing Hippo of Hinode Park
📖 Translated fiction
📖 304 pages
📖 6 chapters
✅️I loved the reflective side which shows a new way of looking at problems
❌️ A bit more character description
✅ Would recommend
✅ Would read it again
⭐ Rating: 4.5

I read what you're looking for is in the library when it came out and it was one of the books that sparked my love for Japanese fiction. I knew I would be in safe hands when it came to this author.

This book was everything I expected from Japanese fiction and the writing itself is so simplistic in its style but hits the reflective thought-provoking side I love. The premise of the book is quite simple each chapter has a character who is going through something tough or an issue in their life such as in chapter 1 Kanatos' head is all about how he doesn't feel as smart as he used to be now he's in high school. He touches the Hippo of Hinode Park and it heals him not in the magical realism I thought it might be about but in the reflective fresh outlook side.

I loved the connection you got between the characters with them all living in the same condominium and the sunrise laundry also playing a part that made you feel like you are part of the community. I've said it before these books feel like little windows into people's lives.

If you enjoyed books like Before the Coffee Gets Cold, the Kamagawa Food Detectives, and days at the Morosaki bookshop this should be added to your TBR

We all long for healing to come, things to improve, life to change, worries and anxieties to go away. What if it were as simple as touching the place in us that hurts to the same place on a decrepit, flaking hippo animal ride in a local park close by our home?

Sounds crazy, right? Although this enchanting novel isn’t focussed on creating magic stardust for us but on revealing the magic solutions that we might miss yet they exist inside ourselves.

Written in a simplistic style with charm, gentle wit and warmth, this book invites us to look at the loosely interconnected lives of 5 different individuals who are all residents of a 5 storey apartment building called Advance Hill.

It calls us to see how the human heart might ache for the wrong thing sometimes or how the human mind can fail to sense the solution that’s already available within, if only our eyes were open to it.

Our stories might differ but we all have access to our own innate wisdom and the wisdom, advice, and knowledge of others. Shared experiences often lead to shared ways of dealing with them.

Each story has its own degree of difficulty and stuckness, its own lightbulb moment resolution, though the intervention of the healing hippo plays its part in moving them forward again.

Tenderly told, childlike in its expectations, perhaps, whatever their age or circumstances, all find the solution they seek after confiding in others and initiating the healing hippo’s help.

Maybe we all need to believe in something that can empower us when we are sad, weak, weary, worried or anxious. Your “healing hippo” might differ from mine but the longed for positive outcome remains the same. Grateful thanks to Random House, Transworld Publishers / Doubleday and NetGalley for the eARC.

A huge thank you to DoubleDay and NetGalley for this EARC!

What an adorable read! The Healing Hippo of Hinode Park is a short novel about 5 short, somewhat connected stories and how Kabahiko a playground hippo helps to heal.
This was the perfect palette cleanser which left me smiling, each story had its own empowering message, which was a smidge repetitive due to the overlapping stories, but still a solid 3⭐️

The hippo of the title is a static animal ride in a small park near Tokyo. Old, battered, its paint flaking off but with his painted smile still visible, Kabahiko is renowned for making those who believe in him feel better. In fact, he’s known as healing Kabahiko and both young and old come to see him regularly.
This is a book of interconnected short stories based around the residents of a condominium named Advance Hill and a local dry cleaning shop called Sunrise Cleaning and of course Kabahiko who lives in the nearby park.
They’re told from different viewpoints and situations from different ages. A high school student fakes his results to please his parents, a mother finds herself again when helping out at a high school bazaar, a wedding planner is on sick leave and hears news that she didn’t really want to hear amongst others.
This is one of those charming books that the Japanese do so well. The characters have quite complex problems and sometimes there is no happy ending. Their problems or situations seem to have overwhelmed them and their belief in Kabahiko’s healing powers enables them to see another way forward. I would not have thought that anxiety was evidence of a powerful imagination. Some are bittersweet, others are more joyous. I love reading this type of book as they are so uplifting and enjoyable.

Another delightful book from the author of What You Are Looking For Is In The Library.
This is a collection of interwoven lives set around a park in which the eponymous hippo resides. It's a delightful book of relationships between friends, families, strangers and our inner lives.

If you liked "...in the Library" or haven't read a book by Michiko Aoyama before, I recommend you try this one.

I received an advance copy of this book. My review is wholly my own words and opinions.

This was a charming, cosy read about finding connection with others that might once have been lost. It’s a set of loosely connected stories about the healing hippo of hinode park - who helps others discover how to heal the things they’re suffering with. I enjoyed this, it perhaps lacked a little of the emotional oomph of the first, but still a lovely quick read. I’d recommend if you are looking for something light and cosy.

The Healing Hippo of Hinode Park by Michiko Aoyama is a story about the tenants of a five block apartment block. Nestled at the bottom is a small park, where Kabahiko
lives.
He is also called the ‘healing hippo’, if you touch him where it hurts or your ailment is, you will be healed.
That is what some of the tenants in the apartment block do..
It is a wonderful gentle series of stories which was a pleasure to read.
Highly recommended

are we sure the book isn't the healing hippo? because wow what a stunning and warming book. this book was the most gorgeous writing with a story line to match. how it played out, the characters we were taken to and the stories told was just so powerful. you were right there with the characters. you were right there willing them on. i flew through this book and didn't mind a bit.
the stories within arent fluffy or without strife. but the characters you truly will onwards and with bravery we see them do the work. all our characters are drawn to the same park and this same healing hippo statue. its comfort draws many to it. each characters is brought to the statue for their own reasons. and within the quietness of the hippo and then their own stillness they each begin to heal.
the stories are loosely connected. until you read it all and you realise how brilliant the book is as a whole. it gives us it all. all we could want from such a story on people, growth and the spanning of time. we see people at all those stages and you can feel a little part for all you read it manages to somehow make it kind of personal for all the readers too.
you truly get wrapped up by this book and it was a joy to be so.

Thank you NetGalley & DoubleDay for the eARC in exchange for an honest review!

‘The Healing Hippo of Hinode Park’ is a short book comprised of five loosely interconnected short stories that follow the residents of a condominium complex who are each dealing with an issue in their lives. Somehow, they all find their way to Kabahiko, a hippo in a playground that is rumoured to have magical healing properties…

The concept here was very sweet - I mean, who wouldn’t want to visit a magical hippo? - and the focus with the characters was on the little things in life. As our characters deal with their problems, they each come to certain realisations, and it’s all thanks to Kabahiko. The stories are very small, but by no means does that make them unimportant. It’s a book about everyday life and the magic we can find within it. I did find some of the stories a little repetitive and I found the messages of each short story to be quite obvious - which is fine - but I prefer a little more subtlety.

Overall, this little book is easy to read with a cute concept and empowering messages.

3 🌟

A fabulous cosy read from the author of “What you are looking for is in the library”

In a similar vein, this book also has characters crossing paths of where they all live in Advance Hill. They all come across Kabahiko in the park when they need him the most.

Legend has it, that Kabahiko has healing powers….

This is a lovely, cosy read of self discovery and healing.

Mini Review: The Healing Hippo of Hinode Park by Michiko Aoyama

Through a variety of different characters from young children to a business owner in her 80's, everyone is searching for and needs healing and connection. Whether friends, lovers, family members or your own mind & body, these connections have huge power to elevate but also hurt us and in the process of healing and beyond, shape who we are and will be.

Here there are stories dealing with anxiety, avoidance, stress and letting go which all throw up mental and physical symptoms affecting each character. But just having a little understanding, listening to our minds and bodies, making small, acheivable changes and seeing things from a different perspective can heal us even more than a hippo can. These stories show how healing is a uniquely unlinear journey of steps forward and back, to the side and upside down. A process where after each stage of recovery you are forever changed into the person that will move into your next chapter.

If you need something light & cosy whilst also being introspective & life-affirming with some practical solutions to shift your awareness of mind & body, this book is for you.

Publishing on: 14/08/25

Thanks to Netgalley, Transworld Publishers & Doubleday for the eARC

A nice translated fiction which fits well with the authors style! I enjoyed how quickly I read and finished this but also how it made me feel! It was joy and a happy place to be

An uplifting novel, comprising a few short stories following a central theme - offering up problems and worries to a model hippo in a play park.
The reader has an insight into the experiences of several different residents in a Japanese suburb, each of who has an emotional, or physical, need which is affecting their well-being.
There is a local belief that by sharing a difficulty, or illness, with the hippo it will be resolved, or healed.
Through the progress of the story the lives of the characters are intertwined and connected as they are all neighbours in the same housing estate.
This is a very simplistic but joyful book, which encourages the reader to believe in the goodness of others, and the importance of living life with a positive attitude - treating others as you would want to be treated yourself.