(cheerful music) - Yeah, okay, thanks!

Thanks for taking us fishing, that was so much fun.

Okay, I'll see you later.

Oh, hi!

Hey campers!

Welcome to Camp Read-A-Lot.

I'm Mrs. Hammack, and I'm so excited that you're here at camp with me.

You know, camp is a time for learning and having fun, and at Camp Read-A-Lot we're gonna spend our days reading and talking, singing, learning, and enjoying all kinds of activities together that will help us become strong readers.

So I am glad to see you.

All right, hey parents, I have a tip for you.

Maybe think about taking your family on a field trip.

That's right!

To your public library.

And when you're there, you can get library cards for the whole family.

It's a great fun place that you can go and look for books for free.

You can get library cards, make a plan to visit, either once or twice a week so that you and your kids can check out new books.

Many, many, many of our libraries have fun, free, or low cost summer reading programs, and not just for kids, but for everyone.

So why don't you check it out and see if a fun family field trip to the public library would work for you?

I think you'll enjoy it.

And remember, when kids don't read over the summer, they can slip back two years in progress in their reading progress.

We don't want that to happen!

So try it out.

See if you can find some fun at your public library.

I know they will not let you down.

All right, campers.

Are you ready?

All right.

♪ Hello readers ♪ ♪ Hello writers ♪ ♪ Hello campers, I'm glad you're here today ♪ ♪ Hello readers ♪ ♪ Hello writers ♪ ♪ Hello campers, I'm glad you're here today ♪ Let's get ready for our Camp Read-A-Lot pledge.

Now remember, I'll say the words, and you repeat after me, but first get our salute ready.

Here we go.

On my honor, I will try my best to be kind to everyone, to have a smile on my face, and a song in my heart.

Nicely done, campers.

You are getting really good at our pledge.

Today, I have a very fun rhyming game for us.

We're going to train our ears for sound because that's something that helps us to grow into being strong readers and writers.

And of course, we wanna do both of those things.

I took my friend, Scooter, we went fishing this morning.

Wow, the lake was beautiful and calm.

And when we got back, he disappeared!

And so I have not been able to find him anywhere.

I know he had a great time fishing.

I'm hoping he didn't go back down to the lake by himself 'cause that's a big no, no, no.

So I was hoping maybe you could help me find him.

Will you help?

Great!

Scooter!

Scooter.

Oh, I hear, did you hear that?

Oh, I heard like a scratching and scuffling noise.

It came from over by the tent.

I'm gonna go over and see if he's there.

Will you come with me?

Okay, come on.

(gasps) Ah!

How did you get caught in the net?

You are not a fish!

What are you doing in there?

Oh my goodness, okay, hold on.

Oh, oh, guh, oh my word.

That was crazy!

What happened?

Oh, yeah, you can't do that.

You can't use the, no, you can't use the net without a grownup helping you.

Yes, I know, you're very, very strong, but look what happened, it fell on top of you and then you got stuck.

Yes, well look, the campers are here and they're ready to play our rhyming game.

Are you ready?

Okay, should we go sit down?

No, no, we're not having smores yet, later.

Come on.

All right friends, campers, today we're going to play a rhyming game, and this rhyming game, you are going to need to figure out which word does not rhyme.

Now I have pictures instead of words, because when we're training our ears, we wanna use our ears and not our eyes for sound.

So we're going to hear the sounds of the picture names so that we can train.

All right, sure you ready to go?

All right, so you ready?

Yes.

Okay.

All right, here we go.

Now, remember your job is to find the one that does not rhyme, okay?

All right, here we go.

Shell, frog, bell.

Did you hear it?

Did you hear the rhyme?

Shell, frog, bell.

Which one does not rhyme?

Do you know?

You do?

Oh, that's right.

Good job!

Very nice.

Okay, what do you think?

Yes!

Frog does not rhyme because shell and bell both end with ell.

Shell, bell, they both say ell.

Great job, all right, let's look at the next one, shall we?

Here we go.

Man, mouse, house.

Man, mouse, house.

What's that?

Oh, you think these two go together, man and mouse, because they start the same?

Oh, well that's a good try.

That's a good try, but remember, rhyming, they have to have the same ending sound.

Not the beginning sound, the same ending.

So would man and mouse, do they have the same ending?

No, how 'bout mouse and house?

Yes!

Great job.

It's tricky.

Isn't it?

Yeah.

It's confusing sometimes.

Mouse and house rhyme, because they both say ouse.

Let's look at our last one.

Cat, hat, fan.

Cat, hat, actually, I said it backwards, hat, cat, fan.

Right, they all say the ah sound, but is that what makes them rhyme?

No, you're right.

So which ones have the same ending sound?

Cat and fan?

No, cat and hat!

They both say at!

Great job rhyming!

Rhyming can be a little bit tricky, so that's why we need to practice and train our ears to hear the rhyme.

Great job, you did good, buddy.

All right, it's time for us to look at our catch of the day, and then jump into our story.

Are you ready?

Oh, and this story is so good!

I think you are going to love it!

Are you ready too?

Okay, you know where to go?

All right, let's go, get down here in your spot.

And don't wander off, and definitely stay away from the net.

All right, I have the word remarkable.

Remarkable.

Remarkable means wonderful, or unusual, worth paying attention to.

So if something is remarkable, it means we wanna really pay attention to it.

And I have stranded.

Stranded means left with no way to escape.

If you're stranded in the net, like Scooter was, he was stranded in the net.

There was no way for him to escape without help.

And I have sanctuary.

Sanctuary, in our story today, a sanctuary is a place of safety.

So are you ready to find out about our story?

It's gonna be a good one!

All right, today we are reading the story called "Owen and Mzee".

Let me get on my reading glasses to help my eyes be strong.

This is a true story of a remarkable friendship.

Now remember, remarkable means unusual, and something we should pay attention to.

Do you see the picture?

Right, it's a real photograph, isn't it?

So sometimes, not always, but sometimes when we see a book with real photographs, that's a clue that it's a non-fiction story, which means it's a true story.

And this is a true story of "Owen and Mzee".

This is told by Isabella Hatkoff, Craig Hatkoff, and Dr. Paula Kahumbu.

And the photographs are taken by Peter Greste.

I think we're ready to jump into our story.

I can't wait for you to hear this one, it's so awesome.

All right, oh I love how they did some drawings of Owen and Mzee on the inside.

And here is our title page.

And they have another, they have two title pages in this story.

And look, there are our characters, even though they're real life, we still call them characters because this is their story.

Oop.

This is the true story of two great friends, a baby hippopotamus named Owen, and a 130-year-old giant tortoise named Mzee.

The hippo was not always friends with the tortoise.

He wasn't always known as Owen, and Owen was not always famous the world over, but here is how it all happened.

Before the baby hippopotamus became known as Owen, he lived with his mother in a group, or pod, with about 20 other hippos.

They fed and wallowed in and around Sabaki River in Kenya.

Remember, we read a story about Kenya before, well we're gonna see some more about Kenya!

A nation on the east coast of Africa.

We know right where that is, right, and we looked at the map.

When he was about one year old, heavy December rains flooded the river.

The racing water washed Owen and his family down the river until the fresh water became salty and the river flowed into the Indian Ocean near a small coastal town of Malindi.

For days, the people of Malindi tried to chase the hippos back into the river, but the hippos enjoyed grazing the grasses along the shore and in the villagers' yards.

Since hippos are the most dangerous animal in Africa, a full-grown adult can weigh as much as 8,000 pounds, there was very little that the people could do.

Look at that.

On the morning of December 26th, 2004, the sea suddenly rushed high onto the beaches, and as surging waves pounded the shore, many of the villagers' boats were damaged, and many fishermen had to be rescued.

Before long, the sea was calm again, but it was a frightening time for everybody.

A day passed before anyone thought to check on the hippos.

The villagers now saw only one hippopotamus in the sea.

It was a baby without his mother, stranded on a sandy coral reef among the sea grass.

Tired and frightened, he was unable to reach the shore on his own.

Soon, hundreds of villagers and visitors were working together to help the young hippo.

They knew that he would become sick if he stayed in the salty seawater for too long.

They used ropes, and boats, fishing nets, and even cars to try to rescue him and bring him to safety ashore.

That would be scary, wouldn't it?

So did you hear a fact about hippos?

They have to live in fresh water, right?

So he was not gonna make it if he stayed in the salty water of the sea.

It was soon clear that the rescue would not be easy.

Though the hippo was only about two feet tall, he weighed a hefty 600 pounds, and he was slippery and strong.

And the hippo was alarmed by all the human commotion.

Angrily, he woke up through their nets and escaped through the ropes.

Hours went by, and the anxious crowd of people who gathered to watch feared that the hippo would not be saved.

Finally, with a stronger shark net, the rescuers were able to catch the hippo.

A brave visitor named Owen Sobien tackled him, stopping him long enough to let others secure the net.

That is why when it came time to choose a name for the hippo, it seemed only right to call him Owen.

At last, the rescuers towed baby hippo toward land, and when they reached the shore, a loud and joyous cheer went up from the thousands of men, women, boys, and girls who had now crowded the beaches.

Their happy cries could be heard almost a mile away.

Wrapped in the net, Owen was hoisted into the back of a pickup truck and brought to a shady spot.

People weren't sure where Owen should be taken.

They called Haller Park, an animal sanctuary about 50 miles away near the city of Mombasa.

Dr. Paula Kahumbu, the manager, immediately offered Owen a place to live there.

She explained that he could never, ever go back to the wild.

Since he was still a baby, he wouldn't have learned how yet to get to take care of himself, and he would never be welcomed into another hippo pod.

He would be seen as an intruder, and they would attack.

But they would take good care of him at Haller Park, and Dr. Paula offered to drive to Malindi herself to bring Owen to his new home.

Dr. Paula knew she would need help.

She asked the chief animal caretaker, Stephen Tuei, to come along with her.

She knew that Steven had a special way with animals.

Some people said he could talk to the animals, and Dr. Paula and Steven quickly set off in their small truck to Malindi.

Meanwhile, ecologist Sabine Baer got to work with others at Haller Park to prepare for his arrival.

Okay, it's getting exciting.

Dr. Paula and Stephen arrived in Malindi, and they helped to remove the sea nets and lead Owen out of the pickup.

But Owen became angrier than ever, and he charged at the people gathered around.

They tried to help calming him down by wrapping a blanket around his head.

That way he couldn't see the things that were upsetting him.

But Owen was angry about that too.

Owen, they picked him up and put him in the truck, trying so that he would be safe during a long drive at Haller Park.

Can you imagine trying to move a 600-pound baby hippo?

Wow.

Meanwhile, Sabine and the other workers prepared a large enclosure for Owen.

They chose a part of the park that had a pond and a mud wallow as well as trees and brush, everything that a hippo could ever want.

The area was already home to a number of bushbucks, vervet monkeys, and a giant Aldabra tortoise named Mzee.

Mzee, whose name means wise old man in the Swahili language, was the oldest creature in the park.

He was about 130 years of age!

He had been seen alive since before Stephen's great grandmother was born.

He was not very friendly except to Stephen who seemed to know exactly what he liked, such as getting tickled under his chin.

Otherwise, Mzee kept to himself.

No one could have guessed how Mzee's life was about to change.

Finally Dr. Paula and Steven arrived with Owen who was now weak and exhausted from fighting.

As soon as the ropes that held him were untied, he scrambled out of the truck directly to Mzee, resting in the corner of the enclosure.

Owen crouched behind Mzee, the way that baby hippos often hide behind their mothers for protection.

At first, Mzee was not happy about this attention.

He hissed at Owen, and crawled away, but Owen who could easily keep up with the old tortoise, didn't give up.

Slowly as the night went on, Mzee began to accept his new companion, and when the park workers checked on them in the morning, Owen was snuggled up next to Mzee, and Mzee did not seem to mind at all.

Look how sweet they are.

Over the next few days, Mzee continued to crawl away, and Owen continued to follow him, but sometimes it was Owen who walked away from Mzee, and Mzee would follow him!

Bit by bit, Mzee grew friendlier.

At first, Owen wouldn't eat any of the leaves that were left out for him.

Stephen and the other caretakers were worried that he would get weak if he didn't start eating.

And they noticed Owen feeding right beside Mzee, as if Mzee was showing him how to do it, or perhaps it was Mzee's protective presence that helped Owen feel calm enough to eat.

No one will ever know, but it was very clear that the bond between Owen and Mzee was helping the baby hippo to recover from being separated from his mother and stranded at sea.

As the weeks went by, Owen and Mzee spent more and more time together.

Soon they were inseparable.

Their bond remains very strong to this day.

They swim together, eat together, drink together, sleep next to each other.

They rub noses.

Owen leads the way to different parts of the enclosure, and Mzee leads to the way too.

Owen playfully nuzzles Mzee's neck, and Mzee stretches his neck forward, asking for more, just as he does when Stephen tickles him under his chin.

Though both animals could easily injure one another, they are gentle towards one another, and a sense of trust has grown between them.

Look how precious, oh, I love that.

Wildlife experts are still puzzled about how this unlikely friendship came to be, and most have never heard of a mammal like Owen and a reptile like Mzee forming such a strong bond.

Perhaps for Owen, it happened this way.

Young hippos like Owen need their mothers in order to survive.

An old, slow tortoise like Mzee can never protect Owen the way a fierce mother hippo could.

But since Mzee's coloring and round shape are similar to a hippo, it's possible that to Owen, that Mzee looked like a hippo mother.

Harder to explain is Mzee's affection for Owen.

Like most Aldabra tortoises, Mzee prefers to be alone.

But sometimes, these tortoises live in groups, and perhaps Mzee sees Owen as a fellow tortoise, the first tortoise he is willing to spend time with.

Or maybe they just like each other.

News of Owen and Mzee's friendship quickly spread around the whole world.

People all over came to love Owen, who endured so much, yet never gave up, and Mzee who became Owen's friend when he needed one the most.

Their photographs have been appearing in countless newspapers and articles, television programs, even documentaries about them.

Visitors come to Haller Park every day to meet the famous friends.

Isn't that the best?

Aren't animals amazing?

We can learn so much about friendship from this story and from animals!

I love how they take care of one another.

Oh, I thought it would be fun for us to make a little hippo craft.

But before we do, I have a joke for you, are you ready?

What is a hippo's favorite music?

Hip-hop.

(claps and laughs) Get it?

Hip, like hippo?

Hop?

Oh gosh, that was a good one.

All right, let's go to our craft table.

We just have a few minutes, but I wanna show you something that you could try at home to help you remember the friendship, the remarkable friendship of our Mzee and Owen.

All right, sit right there, mister.

Today, I have a hippo craft for you.

Isn't it sweet?

Now, of course hippos are not really purple, but the color of their skin is a brownish kind of purple-ish color.

But this is something I think you would have fun making, and then you could remember to tell the story of their friendship.

The first thing you're gonna do is I want you to notice it's kind of a heart shape.

So you can fold your paper, and you start at this bottom corner.

You're gonna cut all the way up, and then curve it around to there.

And that will give you this beautiful heart shape.

And then you can do the same thing with the pink.

I used the heart shape to make the nostrils and his ears.

This is just a brown oval, and then some teeth.

I think you could try this at home, and I would sure love for you to share this story with your family.

Do you know how our story can inspire you to be a better friend?

I want you to think about that today.

How can the story of Mzee and Owen help you be a better friend?

♪ Skinna marinka dinka dink ♪ ♪ Skinna marinka doo ♪ ♪ I love you ♪ ♪ Skinna marinka dinka dink ♪ ♪ Skinna marinka doo ♪ ♪ I love you ♪ ♪ I love you in the morning, and in the afternoon ♪ ♪ I love you in the evening, and underneath the moon ♪ Ow ow ow!

♪ Skinna marinka dinka dink ♪ ♪ Skinna marinka doo ♪ ♪ I love you, and you, and you, and you ♪ See you tomorrow!

Bye-bye.

(cheerful music)