Haller Park

The Book Look
April 1, 2006

‘Owen and Mzee: the True Story of a Remarkable Friendship’ The bond between a baby hippotamus orphaned during the Asian tsunami and a 130-year-old Aldabran tortoise is the basis for a recently released children’s book publsihed by Scholastic Inc. Written by Craig Hatkoff, his seven-year-old daughter, Isabella, and Dr. Paula Kahumba of Lafarge Eco Systems, operators of Haller Park in Kenya where the animals live, “Owen and Mzee: The True Story of a Remarkable Friendship” tells the story of how these two animals came together. Inspiration for the Hatkoff’s to write Owen and Mzee’s story came after the two saw the pair’s picture