We Are All Animals by Ben Hoare
We Are All Animals is a fact filled non-fiction book comparing humans to animals in interesting ways. One of the authors, Ben Hoare, takes us on a journey of discovery in today’s blog.
Sometimes as a writer, you get to work on a book that so completely takes you by surprise, it changes you in unexpected ways. We Are All Animals is one of those books. Even though I’ve been telling children about the wonders of nature for nigh on 25 years, some of the things I uncovered during my research for WAAA simply boggled my mind. They still do.
I had not appreciated, for instance, that virtually all animals have an immune system. Here, I don’t just mean vertebrates like us, but also ants, worms and tiny single-celled organisms. All get sick, and they all have ways of fighting back.
As the book explains, this connectedness between humans and the rest of the animal kingdom has many real-world consequences. For example, the same microbes can make different species unwell. Cheetahs and coatis, ferrets and fruit bats, hyenas and humans all catch Covid – and pass it on to each other. Meanwhile, medical treatments frequently work in both humans and other animals. The same painkillers and antibiotics that help us can help horses, cats, dogs, sheep and fish.
We Are All Animals is stuffed with equally amazing examples of the parallels between human beings and other creatures. As the ‘Supervet’ Noel Fitzpatrick says in his brilliant foreword: “We have far more in common than has ever been different between us.”
To keep things simple, I decided that each spread in the book should focus on a different similarity. We start by looking at cells – nearly all animal cells share the same basic features. Then we explore how all animals grow, how they all need oxygen, food and water – and how, sooner or later, they must all go to the toilet.
There are also spreads on moving, communication, senses, telling the time, sleep and the need for a home, or habitat – all of which are pretty universal. And the book covers ageing and death in a sensitive way, showing children how every death is a natural part of the cycle of life. In the end, we’re all recycled.
Of course, because I like my books to be playful, there are plenty of lighter touches. Readers will discover why gorillas need cuddles, that hedgehog poo sparkles and that they have something very important in common with a jam doughnut! They’ve got a hole through the middle – they’re basically a tube. Most animals are.
We Are All Animals has a huge amount of science in its colourful pages, but at heart is a book about mutual connections. Its central message is that humans are not separate from nature, but part of it.
The one-ness of nature is a theme I’ve returned to often, yet writing We Are All Animals felt different, because it changed how I see myself as a writer. I came to realise that I’m an activist, albeit a quiet one who sits at a desk. So, I’d love every politician to read our new book. Or failing that, for lots of children to, since what they think and hold dear matters more in the long run.
WE ARE ALL ANIMALS Discover what YOU have in common with a cat, a bat, a jellyfish and 150 other animals! by Ben Hoare, Christopher Lloyd, Illustrated by Mark Ruffle, including a forward by Supervet Noel Fitzpatrick. Out now in hardback by What on Earth!
Views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the Federation.
