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I liked this book because it showed an unlikely friendship between animal species. I liked that the book was about a unique friendship between animal species because I feel like generally animal books center around a specific animal. This cute informational book made me more engaged and interested in the text. I also liked that the illustrations were actually just photographs. This made the book seem very realistic and instead of having an artist paint or draw, they had a photographer take pictures of real animals. The big idea of this book was very clearly friendship. ( )

Summary:
This is a story about an unlikely friendship that is formed between a giant tortoise and an orphaned baby hippo. The baby hippo named Owen was orphaned after a great flood separated him from his mother. Owen was very scared and angry as rescuers tried to to help him however after arriving at the zoo, he found an unlikely friendship with the zoos 130-year-old giant tortoise, Mzee. At first Mzee did not like the scared baby hippo, however after a while the two formed an close bond that touched the lives of many.

My Personal Reaction:
I love baby hippos so this book definitely gets five stars from me however the cover picture is what really made me want to read it. I mean come on! a baby hippo snuggled up next to a giant tortoise? Too cute! I also like that this story shows even in the worst situations, you can always find friends in the most unlikely places.

Classroom Extension Ideas:
1. We could take a trip to the zoo paying extra attention to the animals in the book.

2. We could research both animals and maybe find examples of other unlikely friendships from other stories.

3. Children can do a creative writing and tell about how they met one of their own friends. ( )

This is an information book and a true story about two unlikely friends. Owen, a hippo, and Mzee, a tortoise, met when Owen was just a baby and Mzee was 130 years old. Owen was rescued from Africa when there was a flood; it wasn't an easy rescue and took many helpers. Owen was taken to Haller Park, where everyone tried to make the transition go smoothly for him. Owen was placed in the same enclosure as Mzee and a few other animals. Immidiately after being put inside the enclosure, Owen gravitated towards Mzee. That night, they snuggled really close while sleeping. It took Mzee some getting used to, but she soon grew very fond on Owen. These two became inseparable. ( )

In my opinion this is a good book that tells a story of how a baby hippo and a giant tortoise became inseparable friends. This book starts out with a hippo pod and how the pod got washed down stream in a rain storm and ended up near the ocean. Well there was a village there and the villagers tried to get the hippos to move back up stream but they enjoyed eating the grass around the village. Well one day high tied came up washed the hippo pod out to sea and the only hippo that survived was a baby hippo and the villagers rescued the hippo and called a sanctuary to take the hippo. Haller Park sanctuary came to pick up the hippo they were happy to take care of him and told the villagers that the hippo could never return to the wild because he is too young to have been taught to defend himself. When they got the hippo to the sanctuary he ran directly to this giant tortoise and hid behind him like a baby hippo would hide behind its mother. From that point on the two animals were inseparable.

I like this book because it shows you that even the most unlikely of things can happen in life. In the book it shows you how a giant tortoise and a baby hippo became best of friends, which never has been seen before. Another reason I like this book is that it shows you that people in the world want to help out animals that can’t help themselves. In the book the villagers did everything they could to rescue the baby hippo and make sure that he would live. ( )