A Different Kind Of Safari, by Helen C. Hipp

[Note: This book was provided free of charge by Author Blog Tours In Exchange For An Honest Review.]

This particular volume is based on a true story–namely, what I take to be a friendly trip to Africa with a grandfather as well as a vivid dream. Given that the author is named Hipp and the animal chosen to give voice to her worldview about differences is a pink hippo in a world of gray hippos, it is pretty clear that the hippo is a stand-in for the author’s point of view, where a melancholy boy who feels anxious about being different and frightened by the dangers of his world in the African savannah that he recoils in fear from the TLC (Tender Loving Crocodile) who turns out not to be dangerous at all, and interrupts a story about a zebra who is rejected by all of the horses who live their lives in fear.

This is clearly a book with an agenda that is not very subtle in the least. This world is filled with people who live in fear and who exclude and make fun of others because of their differences. Yet not all differences are a matter of prejudices. The reason why people fear crocodiles is because many crocodiles are dangerous, and most people would rather live by rules that all crocodiles are to be considered dangerous than to consider the reality of affectionate and loving ones, as unjust as it is to be afraid of and hostile to a kindly affectionate crocodile. In other cases, as with the striped zebra or the pink hippo, differences can either serve as a matter of distinctive beauty or occasionally serve as an advantage in camouflage, in protecting the safety of an animal that would otherwise be prey.

At its heart, this book does not want to wrestle with the depths of the moral ambiguity behind the fears that people live under. It is all well and good to tell children to not be afraid of a world full of animals red in tooth and claw in a book that is written about a different kind of safari, one where human beings and animals do not fear each other but instead live in peace and harmony, the sort of world discussed by Isaiah’s prophecies. Strikingly, though, this particular book does not appear to have in mind the sort of world where the moral standards of God (including the distinction between differences of taste and habit, which are to be appreciated as providing variety, and differences that are the result of distinct moral choices, which come with judgments). It is ironic, but also characteristic, that the author seeks to build a world that seeks to gain the advantages of the millennial rule of Jesus Christ without seeking to promote the way of life he modeled perfectly on this earth, and that He instructs us to follow in his footsteps. Still, this is an enjoyable and rather peaceful sort of safari that ought to please children who need encouragement about being different in a world that is pretty cruel, even if it would require some explanation as to the boundaries of its applicability on the part of parents and teachers.