The Zoo I Drew

July 27, 2009
This animal alphabet book looks promising, starting with its bright red corrugated cover that evokes an old-fashioned sketchbook. The portraits of zoo favorites, set against single color backdrops, are both winsome and graphically bold, bringing to mind rubber bathtub toys. But pictures with this much pop beg for a text with equally memorable verse, and Doodler-actually Todd Harris Goldman (Boys Are Stupid, Throw Rocks at Them!)-does not provide it. The verses rhyme, technically, but the word choices are weak and the rhythms uneven. His lines on the vulture, for example, are clunky: "With a bald, wrinkled head,/ It's called a bird of prey./ I just don't understand why/ The vulture doesn't wear a wig or toupee." The text repeatedly falls far short of the book's eye-catching design. Ages 2-5.

August 1, 2009
PreS-Gr 1-This playful alphabet offering combines bold artwork with rhyming, conversational text to muse about a variety of zoo residents. The cover, with its corrugated texture and an illustration of a giraffe equaled in height by a stack of turtles, invites readers to peer inside. Large graphic-style cartoon images of the animals, presented against solid-colored backdrops, fill the pages. Though the (sometimes awkward) verses offer a smattering of facts about each critter, they lean more toward the whimsical and occasionally encourage readers to think beyond the pictures. For example, a unicorn is included, but the author admits that it "]wasn't really at the zoo./i'm just seeing if you're paying attention, /so i played a trick on you!" He also ponders why a vulture, with its "bald, wrinkled head," doesn't "wear a wig" and comments seriously about fox fur coats. The entry for "X" cleverly skirts the issue: "i couldn't find an animal for x, /so instead i grabbed a quick snack" (a plate of cookies that is immediately consumed by the next animal, a yak). An additional purchase."Mary Elam, Learning Media Services Plano ISD, TX"

Copyright 2009 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2010
The author pairs each letter with a rhyme about an animal (except X, which is paired with cookies: "I couldn't find an animal for X, / so instead I grabbed a quick snack"). He scores major points for quirkiness but is less successful with rhythm. Each spread features a simply composed rendering of its wide-eyed subject against a monochromatic background.

(Copyright 2010 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)