Description "I thought you lived alone." I said to Doctor Dolittle. "I do live alone," the Doctor replied. "It was Dab-Dab who lit the light." I looked up the stairs to see who was coming, but I couldn't see the landing. Instead, I heard strange footsteps from the stairs above — footsteps I had never heard before. It sounded like someone hopping down the stairs on just one leg. As the light came closer, growing brighter, a strange hopping shadow appeared on the wall. "At last! Well done, Dab-Dab!" the Doctor said. It truly felt like a dream. A pure white duck, neck held high, was hopping down the landing on one foot — carrying a candle in its other foot. -p.35 "Are there lions or tigers too?" I asked as we walked together. "No. I could never keep lions or tigers here. And even if I could, I wouldn't. If it were up to me, Stubbins, not a single lion or tiger in this world would be kept in a cage. They don't like being confined. They can never be happy that way. They never stay in one place — they're always thinking of the great lands they came from. Look into the eyes of a tiger or lion, and you'll always see them dreaming of the wide-open spaces where they were born. Dreaming of the deep, dark jungle where they learned from their mothers how to track the scent of deer. And do you know what these animals get in exchange for giving up all of that?" The Doctor stopped and turned to me, his face growing red with anger. "What could possibly replace the glorious African sunrise, the gentle breeze that tickles the palm trees at dusk, the green shadows of tangled vines, the cool desert nights beneath brilliant stars, or the majestic sound of a waterfall after a hard hunt? What do they get instead of all that? An empty cage with iron bars, a lump of meat thrown in once a day, and foolish people staring at them with open mouths! No, Stubbins. Great hunters like lions and tigers should never, ever be kept in a zoo." -p.73 There were so many places I wanted to go that I couldn't decide right away. While I was still thinking, the Doctor sat up straight in his chair and said, "Here's what we'll do, Stubbins. This is a game I used to play when I was young, before I lived with Sarah. It's called 'Traveling with Your Eyes Closed.' Whenever I wanted to set sail but couldn't decide where to go, I would bring out an atlas, close my eyes, and open the book. Then, still with my eyes closed, I'd wave a pencil around and poke it down onto the open page. Then I'd open my eyes and see where it landed. It's a very fun game — but before you start, you have to promise that wherever the pencil lands, that's where you'll go. Want to try it?" "Oh, yes!" I nearly shouted. "That sounds wonderful! I hope it's China. Or maybe Borneo or Baghdad." I quickly climbed up to the bookshelf, pulled down the big atlas from the top, and set it on the table in front of the Doctor. I had that atlas memorized. I had spent countless days and nights gazing at that old, faded map! Following the blue rivers that flowed from the mountains to the sea, wondering what the little villages along the way really looked like— -p.154 "I believe that if you never meet this plump, kind, and passionate doctor and his animal friends in childhood, you're missing out on something truly precious. I fell in love with Africa while reading the adventures of Doctor Dolittle." -Jane Goodall (zoologist, author of Reason for Hope) "If Charles Darwin is my hero now, then Doctor Dolittle was my hero as a child. I read the adventures of Doctor Dolittle again and again, and they nurtured my dream of becoming a scientist. Whenever I encounter writing that claims humans matter more than animals and dismisses those who care about animal suffering, I know it's thanks to Doctor Dolittle that I still feel that anger." -Richard Dawkins (evolutionary biologist, author of The Selfish Gene) Someone who could talk with any animal...