Hairy Hezekiah

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Hezekiah is a very hairy camel. He lives a quiet life in his enclosure at the zoo and seems to be the only animal without a friend. So Hezekiah decides to escape from the zoo and go on the run - crashing through hedges, hiding in toilets and breaking into a safari park! There he meets another hairy character - and finally makes a friend . . .

Excerpt provided by Syndetics

Hairy Hezekiah 1 In a zoo in an English city there lived a camel. Do not think that I am being a liar, when I say his name was Hezekiah. It really was, honestly. He was a Bactrian camel, very big and heavy and covered with a lot of dark brown hair. On his back he carried two large humps. He was well-fed and kindly treated, but in one way Hezekiah was different from all the other animals in the zoo. They had friends to talk to--the lions in the Lion House, the gorillas and chimpanzees in the Ape House, the birds in the Aviary, the monkeys in the Monkey Temple--they all had others of their own kind with them or close by. They could roar or scream or whistle or chatter at one another as much as they liked. But there were no other camels for Hezekiah to make friends with. He was the only one, and he lived in a wire-fenced grass paddock all by himself. Hezekiah, you will have guessed, was lonely. Visitors to the zoo came and stood by the fence and looked at Hezekiah. They could hear himmaking deep grumbly noises as he stared out at them through his heavily lashed eyes, but they could not know that he was in fact talking to himself out loud. He had fallen into this habit because he had no camel friends to speak to, no camel voices to listen to, and, though he didn't suppose the humans could understand him, it comforted him to speak his thoughts to the watching people. "Wish I had a pal," he often said. "Don't suppose you care but I'm the only camel in the zoo, did you know that?" Often, in reply to Hezekiah's growling and snorting and the bubbly sounds that he made through his thick rubbery lips, the visitors made noises too. But of course Hezekiah could not understand what they were saying to him, and anyway he couldn't hear much of it because his ears were very hairy inside.     One day Hezekiah was standing by the gate to his paddock, staring out through his heavy eyelashes. It was a bitterly cold winter's day. There were hardly any visitors in the zoo and none at all near him. He didn't mind the cold a bit as his coat was so thick, but he was more than usually grumpy because he hadn't yet been fed. "Where's my blasted breakfast?" he growled. "I'm starving. My humps feel all floppy." Camels store fat in their humps, and if they are really, really short of food, the humps shrink in size. Hezekiah wasn't actually starving, of course, just hungry. When at last he saw his keeper approaching, carrying a bale of hay, he shouted rudely at the man. "Get a move on, slowpoke!" he boomed. "You're late and I'm famished!" The keeper was a fairly new one who hadn't been at the zoo for long. The only thing he knew about the camel was that he seemed to be a bad-tempered old thing who was always moaning and groaning. "Keep your hair on, Hezekiah," he said as he slid back the metal bar that kept the gate shut. Now he opened it, threw in the bale of hay and cut its strings. "There you are, you old grouch," he called, and he went out again, closing the gate behind him. Hezekiah tucked into his hay greedily, swallowing it down in great lumps. Like a cow, he would later lie down and chew the cud. When night fell, he got to his feet and, on his huge splayed hooves, lumbered over to the gate of the paddock and stood, as he often did, staring out. There was no one for him to talk to, for all thevisitors had left the zoo, so, as usual, he talked to himself. "I wish," said Hezekiah, "that I could open this gate. I could have a walk around the place, meet some other animals, make a pal perhaps, even though I'm the only camel in the zoo. I wonder if I could somehow open the darn thing. Perhapsit's something to do with that metal bar. Maybe I could shift it." He lowered his long neck and with his thick blubbery lips he mouthed at the bar. It was stiff and for a while he could not move it. "Easy enough for keepers with fingers and thumbs," he grumbled, "but not for Bactrian camels." He was on the point of giving up, but then he said to himself, "Oh, come on, Hezekiah, one last try." He gave it one last push and at last the bar slid across and the gate swung open. "Bless my humps!" he said, and walked out. Copyright (c) 2005 by Foxbusters Ltd. Excerpted from Hairy Hezekiah by Dick King-Smith All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

Polished raconteur King-Smith (Babe: The Gallant Pig) adds another cheerful animal caper to his repertoire, introducing a hairy Bactrian camel who is the sole member of his species in an English zoo. Hoping to find a pal, the lonely creature escapes from his paddock and roams around the zoo. But friends are nowhere to be found: the lions threaten to eat him, the chimps laugh at him and a parrot insults his appearance. Hezekiah then lumbers through the countryside, where he "wreaked a trail of havoc," leaving behind broken gates, smashed fences and holes in hedges, thus enabling other animals to leave their pastures and amble where they like. When the camel expresses a desire "to find somewhere safe to go, somewhere with lots of space," some Holstein cows point him in the direction of a safari park, located on the grounds of an earl's estate. That debonair fellow (who sports a bushy beard and mustache) is immediately enchanted by his visitor: "They looked into each other's eyes, and perhaps because each was so hairy, both felt that they were kindred spirits and had become-and would always continue to be-best friends." King-Smith expertly juggles the comedic and the informational-readers may be surprised by how much they will learn about the species-and Bruel's (Poor Puppy) cartoon art enhances both the initial poignancy and the playfulness of this tale. Ages 7-10. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

School Library Journal Review

Gr 2-4-Hezekiah, a grumpy old Bactrian camel, is lonely. There are no other camels at the zoo for him to talk to. One day he figures out how to open the gate to his paddock and he's off on an amazing and funny adventure. He encounters children and some humorous Holsteins that direct him to the great country estate of the Earl of Basin, who has established a wildlife safari park on his grounds. Hezekiah decides that this is the man he needs to see. The Earl has a real affinity for camels, having ridden one when he was a boy, and he arranges for Hezekiah to live in his park. By the end, he also serves as a matchmaker by arranging to trade a gorilla for Hephzibah, "a beautiful brown hairy young female Bactrian camel." Information on camels is subtly introduced into this story, which is enhanced by Bruel's amusing line drawings. With word repetition, some challenging vocabulary, graphic support, and comical characters, this is an ideal early chapter book.-Elaine Lesh Morgan, Multnomah County Library, Portland, OR (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Kirkus Book Review

Another amiable animal ramble from King-Smith--this one featuring a lonely Bactrian camel who breaks out of a Somerset zoo to look for a pal. Lipping open the latch to his cage, Hezekiah ambles through the closed zoo for chats with the lions and chimps, fills up on water in the men's restroom and then (thanks to a notably inattentive zookeeper) sallies forth into the countryside, leaving chaos behind him as he plows through hedges and fences. At last, a conversation with some cows brings his quest to an end; directed to a local game park, he bonds with the animal-loving Earl who owns it, and hooks up with species-mate Hephzibah. "I do like happy endings!" exclaims the Earl. Hezekiah doesn't have the vivid personality, nor the adventures of Star Livingstone's llama Harley (2001), illustrated by Molly Bang, and doesn't show much character in Bruel's bland cartoons. Still, this low-key comedy will please newly independent readers. (Fantasy. 8-10) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.