Chapter One in which we meet Hippo and Al
Like Alice in Wonderland, “I can’t go back to yesterday because I was a different person hippo then.” Back then, I did what every hippo does. I dozed in the hot sun and wallowed in the swamp all day and chomped on the savanna at night. And, of course, along with all the other animals,...
Chapter Two in which Hippo is on the horns of a dilemma
Wild shrieks and howls rent the air. The earth rumbled under the hooves of thousands of antelope, elephants and wildebeests on the move. As usual, Al brought the news: “The lions have called a summit,” he said. “It’s about the humans.” We all took up the call, walking, running, crawling, hopping, flying or waddling our...
Chapter Three in which Al proves his mettle
Without warning, Al pecked me on the head – hard. “You only get one wallowday every moon, and you have used that up,” scolded Al. “Have you forgotten what Dumbledore said in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone?” he demanded. “What can I do?” I asked. “You hear them. They won’t listen to me.” Al...
Chapter Four in which Hippo and Al are dazzled by life on Earth
What Al and I discovered within the pages of the next books we read was more riveting than the most fantastic fiction. I am proud of my size, I admit it. After all, I am a 4000 pounder, but what we learned left me feeling like a lightweight and not a little deflated. It seems...
Chapter Five in which Hippo and Al ponder a difficult question
Al’s question (Why are humans causing us so much trouble?) could not be easily answered. It’s complicated. Some said that homo sapiens are simply a flawed species – greedy and selfish – and that the world would be better off without them. We desperately hoped this was not the case. “Without humans, there would be...
Chapter Six in which Hippo and Al go undercover
Hippo and Al Undercover, by Emmy Rozanski “Al,” I said, “let’s go undercover and visit one of those supermarkets. Maybe that will tell us what we need to know.” I put on a dark overcoat. Al sat on my head underneath a fedora hat and peeked out through a small hole. We went to see...
Chapter Seven in which Hippo thinks like a human
Hippo enjoys her river spa “Maybe we can understand it better if we try to see it from the human point of view.” said Al. “Excellent idea,” I cried. “I’ll pretend to be a human-thinking hippopotamus.” “A group of us hippos gets together to clear out those deep, buried roots and bushes that get in...
Chapter Eight in which Hippo and Al uncover a magical tipping point
At Al’s suggestion, we started looking for good news and solutions. We discovered that it’s not just one hippo and one bird at all. It is also millions of extraordinary, ordinary humans in tens of thousands of transformative movements all over the world, doing the best they can to pass on a beautiful world to...
Chapter Nine in which Hippo and Al face the giants
We learned about one-eyed giants, blue-skinned giants with three fingers and three toes, and a giant with fifty heads. But these giants lived a long time ago and perhaps only in books. We had just about given up on the idea when I caught sight of an article in The Guardian, “How America’s food giants...
Chapter Ten in which Hippo decides to become a hummingbird
Inspiration arrived in the form of an article about fellow African Wangari Maathai (1940-2011), known fondly as “Mama Trees.” In the 1970’s, Maathai saw that her native Kenya was in trouble. The sparkling streams she had known as a girl had dried up. The tadpoles were gone. “My own child could not play with them...
Chapter Eleven in which Hippo has an epiphany
“They have to eat!” I blurted. “What are you talking about, Hippo?” “They have to eat!” I repeated. “There are a lot of humans and they all have to eat!” “There are 7 billion,” said Al, “and, of course, they have to eat. Isn’t that the problem?” “Don’t you see, Al? As Wendell Berry said,...
Chapter Twelve in which a wildebeest stands tall
Back under the Baobab tree, the animals listened with wide eyes to our true tales of whales in the oceans and invisible creatures under our hooves, but few believed our plan would work. “A leopard never changes its spots,” said the gazelles and the wildebeests. “That’s true,” said the leopard. “We are not trying to...