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Open the red corrugated cover of this book, and you’ll find two wide-awake turtles among over one hundred sleepy ones. Follow along as a young doodler shows you all the animals he saw at the zoo.
All twenty-six letters of the alphabet call to mind a zoo memory for the young narrator of this book. Beside his drawing of a purple polka-dotted newt, he writes
The newt is small and slimy,
It’s a type of salamander.
It lives on the forest floor,
Where it’s easier to meander.
And under “C is for Camel”:
It’s known for its humps,
And living where the temperature gets hot.
But it never carries a canteen,
Seeing that it doesn’t drink a lot.
All letters of the alphabet inspire a zoo drawing except for U and X - they are a little different. U is meant to trick the reader, and X brings about a cookie break.
The illustrations stand out in this colorful book. Taking up the majority of the space on most of the pages and drawn against solid color backgrounds, each animal has oversized eyes that appear to be looking out at the reader. Although there is minimal detail in the drawings, the author/illustrator adds some particulars by drawing the beaver with a stick in his hand, the rhinoceros with a quail on its horn, and the zebra with a speech balloon. These extras add personality to the animals and interest to the page.
Inspired by the author’s visit to a zoo when he was two years old, The Zoo I Drew is an excellent book - from A to Z!
Clothing, paintings, cartoons, and books… Todd H. Doodler has doodled on them all. The Zoo I Drew is his first picture book for children. Todd spends much of his time in Florida and California.
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The Zoo I Drew