Forget the Camel: The Madcap World of Animal Festivals and What They Say about Being Human

Mary Roach meets Yuval Noah Harari in a cross-country investigation of America’s animal festivals, the furry, scaly, and feathered creatures at their center, and what these enduring traditions reveal about being human.

Groundhog Day, the Iditarod Sled Dog Race, the Maine Lobster Festival, the Jumping Frog Jubilee. Individually, these gatherings celebrate distinct communities and traditions. Taken together, they reveal a shared story about the complicated relationship between humans and the rest of the natural world.

Driven to understand that relationship, Elizabeth MeLampy travels around the country, from Sweetwater, Texas, to Rockland, Maine, to see why communities go to extraordinary—and sometimes uncomfortable—lengths to place living animals at the heart of their identities. What she finds are tight-knit corners of the country where local festivals hold history, culture, and family in high regard, even as the animals at their center inspire a shifting mix of reverence, affection, exploitation, and disregard.

In the colorful cast of people and animals she meets, MeLampy uncovers a web of contradictions that challenges conventional ideas about our place in the natural world and leads her to imagine what a more compassionate future could look like. With the curiosity of a reporter, the insight of an anthropologist, and the compassion of a conservationist, MeLampy provides a vivid entry into an overlooked part of America and reminds us that the stories we tell about animals are ultimately stories about ourselves.