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If I Ran the Zoo (Classic Seuss)

Amazon.com Price:  $9.94 (as of 22/04/2019 09:57 PST- Details)

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Description

Animals abound in Dr. Seuss’s Caldecott Honor–winning picture book If I Ran the Zoo. Gerald McGrew imagines the myriad of animals he’d have in his very own zoo, and the adventures he’ll have to go on in order to gather them all. Featuring everything from a lion with ten feet to a Fizza-ma-Wizza-ma-Dill, it is a classic Seussian crowd-pleaser. In truth, one of Gerald’s creatures has even develop into a part of the language: the Nerd!

“It’s a pretty good zoo,” said young Gerald McGrew, “and the fellow who runs it sort of feels proud of it, too.” But if Gerald ran the zoo, the New Zoo, McGrew Zoo, he’d see to making a change or two: “So I’d open each cage. I’d unlock every pen, let the animals go, and start over again.” And that is the reason just what Gerald imagines, as he travels the world in this playfully illustrated Dr. Seuss classic (first published back in 1950), collecting all sorts of beasts “that you don’t see each day.” From the mountains of Zomba-ma-Tant to the blistering sands of the Desert of Zind, Gerald hunts down every animal possible (“I’ll catch ’em in countries no one can spell, like the country of Motta-fa-Potta-fa-Pell”). Whether it’s a scraggle-foot Mulligatawny or a wild-haired Iota (from “the far western part of south-east North Dakota”), Gerald amazes the world with his new and improved zoo: “This Zoo Keeper, New Keeper’s simply astounding! He travels so far that you think he would drop! When do you suppose this young fellow will stop?”

But Gerald’s weird and wonderful globe-trotting safari doesn’t end a moment too soon: “young McGrew’s made his mark. He’s built a zoo better than Noah’s whole Ark!” One of the vital text and illustrations–imaginative as they are–are obviously dated, such as the following passage: “I’ll hunt in the mountains of Zomba-ma-Tant/ With helpers who all wear their eyes at a slant,/ And capture a fine fluffy bird called the Bustard/ Who only eats custard with sauce made of mustard.” And your children may be the first to recognize that attitudes have changed since the xenophobic ’50s. But that doesn’t mean this tale need be discarded; instead, it should be discussed. Sarcastically, Seuss was trying here–in his wild, explosive, and infrequently careless manner–to celebrate the joys of unconventionality and the bliss of liberation! (Ages 4 to 8)

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