Serendipity

Serendipity is a series of children's books about animals and other creatures. The books were written by Stephen Cosgrove and illustrated by Robin James. The books are short stories with colorful illustrations that have a moral perspective.

 

Cosgrove wrote the books after searching for an easy to read book with a message to read to his then three year-old daughter. After searching for such books and finding primarily large expensive books, he decided to write his own. Cosgrove teamed up with illustrator James to create low cost softcover books. After attempting to have the books published only to be rejected, receiving an offer to publish the books only in hardcover, Cosgrove created his own publishing company - Serendipity Press. The first four books of the Serendipity Series was first released in 1974. These books are: Serendipity, The Dream Tree. Wheedle on the Needle and The Muffin Dragon. Cosgrove merged Serendipity Press with the publishing company, Price/Stern/Sloan-Penguin/Putnum in 1978 so that Cosgrove could focus on writing. Cosgrove decided to re-edit his earlier books, which have been republished with the changes. To date, there are 70 books in the series and are written at the Kindergarten-3rd grade level.