[Pet Health Admin]

In this exciting follow-up to OWEN & MZEE, the New York Times bestselling story about an orphaned baby hippo named Owen and the 130-year-old giant turtle, Mzee, Craig Hatkoff explores the language of love, friendship, and nurturance that these two incredible creatures share with one another. This book traces their first year together, including their adorable playful ways and the unique "language" that they have developed.
Customer Review: More in the Story of Two Friends.....
The story of Owen and Mzee captures children. It was delightful to bring this book into my class. I am a 1st grade teacher but I teach art afterschool from 2:30 to 4:30 daily. Long days. I am using it with children to inspire a series of turtle murals to recognize someone at our school who loved turtles and who lost her battle with illness. It never occurred to me that another book of this friendship might be written and so finding it this weekend at the bookstore was a very nice surprise. I've read the first about Owen and Mzee and their friendship about 15 times to groups of children so I know the story, cadence, ways to deliver it. And this shares the lovely tone. I can't say this enough, this book subject is very well loved by children. In this sequel we learn more of their friendship, how life is going for these two animals that bonded after the tsunami created the strange circumstances that threw them together. In a way you are learning about the on-going care of animals inside a preserve situation and that is very interesting as well. I admit I wondered if their friendship was still strong as the baby hippo grew. It's amazing to learn they even evolved their own language and communicate so much to one another. Plus learning of Mzee's shell damage and while undergoing recuperation this took him away from Owen, Owen making a new friend Toto another Aldabra tortoise to cope, it's just extremely fascinating. I love nature this reminds me why. The book provides plenty of information that should make it very interesting both to the budding scientists and the budding peacemakers in your class. If you are not a teacher, then think, "I'll buy this and donate it to my child's school". Don't forget your child is in school 10 months. If you donate a book a month to the class, that's what...$150. But then think...it'll change the lives of children for years. I donate a book a month still! And my kids are grown practically. So for the kind of book that really will make a difference I'd put this in a classroom in a second. Its got wonderful photos too. And just as an aside. My first version was donated to me by a dear teacher friend. It is presently affecting in so many good ways the lives of children in my school. The book talks of friendship, the unexplained, a kind of bond between two people no one can explain or understand. It's a book about this deep connection these animals formed out of a moment in time and a kind of understanding between two seemingly unconnected, unlikely beings that shows us really for all we do know, we don't really understand some things well enough. For me the book is saying there is survival and there is living and life. I don't exactly ever understand intellectually my bonds to others. It is. I don't find this productive to over analyze but even when I do, say watching two students in a good friendship, what I do notice is how once they find one another the heart is now changed, the awareness the mind finds the other through dark nights of the soul and happy moments of joy. And often-through time and space. Certainly that's how i work. And often at moments when needed. It is a kind of place of rest and comfort. It just is. And because of this we can make it through tough things like tsunamis and things we just can't voice. Our friends love who we really are.They hold us up. And this book, above all else is a place to start understanding these things.
Customer Review: The story continues
This is my second purchase of the Owen and Mzee books. They're a great introduction National Geographic realistic style of the book. It is a great way for little kids to see real photos matched with a kid's story.


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