Sheena Knowles and Rod Clement have created two funny books about emus -- of all creatures -- that I think belong in any zoo-themed book list. In Edward the Emu, the title bird thinks it would be more interesting to be any other animal in the zoo than an emu, so each night he sneaks out of his cage and climbs in with another animal. Each successive morning everyone is surprised to find an emu in with the lions, seals, and snakes. Imagine his surprise, however, when he learns that visitors to the zoo are looking for the interesting emu -- that's him! When he gets back to his cage, he meets Edwina, the emu who replaced him when he went wanderin'. Their life together is the subject of Edwina the Emu, who by now is the mother of ten emu eggs. The illustrations in these two books crack me up (pardon the pun). Who knew emus had such hilarious facial expressions?
Every so often the talented librarian who does the storytime at our local library branch will read The Baby Beebee Bird by Diane Redfield Massie. I think it's the way she reads the story that endears it to me. I was delighted to find a copy of the book at my parents' house on a recent visit. I didn't remember it at all from my childhood, but I'm so happy to share it with my bambini now. A wee little baby beebee bird comes to live at the zoo. As darkness falls and the animals settle in for the night, their sleep is disturbed by the "bobby-beebeeing" of the baby beebee bird, who is nocturnal by nature (like some children I know, ahem). The animals all try to shush the bird, who is only doing what comes naturally. The next morning, the zookeeper is confounded by all the sluggish animals. The baby beebee bird tucks into her nest to sleep for the day, but the other animals will have none of that. They roar, squawk, and pester the bird to keep her awake all day. The next evening when darkness falls, the zoo is blissfully quiet.
Some zoos have an in-house aquarium (but not ours -- that's a separate field trip). Therefore the recently released One Cool Friend by Toni Buzzeo and illustrated by David Small (a favorite of mine) fits right in. A proper young man named Elliot goes to the aquarium with his eccentric father and comes home with a penguin -- a living, breathing penguin. Elliot is a thoughtful and generous host to his new friend, making the bird's accommodations (i.e. Elliot's bedroom) just to the penguin's liking and making all the family's frozen fish available to the guest for his consumption. The dad is clueless to the fact that an actual penguin is living in the house (he thinks the penguin is a stuffed animal souvenir from the aquarium gift shop). He is set straight in a funny and surprising way.
We've been working through many of David Small's books lately, with two of them making my ongoing "favorites" list: George Washington's Cows (which Small himself both wrote and illustrated) and The Huckabuck Family: and How They Raised Popcorn in Nebraska and Quit and Came Back (one of Carl Sandberg's Rootabaga Stories). I digress, however, from my zoo theme by mentioning them.
Back on topic, for the wee-est zoo-goers in the group, there is Eric Carle's 1-2-3 To The Zoo and Deborah Guarino's Is Your Mama A Llama?
We also really liked Jon Agee's My Rhinoceros, about a boy who adopts a rhinoceros as a pet even though he's told that rhinoceroses are only good for popping balloons and poking holes in kites. Turns out, those talents are actually useful in certain situations.
Now I feel a little better about my canvassing of the zoo-themed books scene (not that I've even scratched the surface). At least I've given a more complete picture of the books we will reach for should anyone suggest going to the zoo again anytime soon.
