Zoo-Looking Poetry Selection

 

 

Summary:

I read the book Zoo-Looking by Mem Fox. This book is about a little girl whose name is Flora and her visit to the zoo with her dad. As Flora and her dad walk through the zoo, Flora believes that as she is looking at the animals they are looking back at her.

Evaluation of Genre:

I would say the genre of the book is poetry.  The book contains imaginative perceptions of the little girl looking at the animals and the animals looking back at her.  The author uses rhyming words that would appeal to younger children.   The illustrations were done in collage.   The illustrator painted papers with watercolors and then the papers were torn into shapes to make the pictures.  I like the way the pictures in the book.  I think the way the book is illustrated gives a relaxing laid back feel, and I think that the illustrations fit perfectly. 

Questions To Ask:

Who has gone to the zoo?

Did you think that the animals were looking at you while you were looking at them?

What other animals have you seen at the zoo?

Which zoos have you gone to?

Activities:

A motivational activity could to create a scrapbook for Flora that would remind her of the day that she spent at the zoo.  The children could go outside and collect items from the playground that they think they would find at the zoo.  Such as a birds’ feather to remind Flora of the ostrich, or a twig from a tree that could symbolize the branch the giraffe was eating.

Another motivational activity would be to create zoo themed recipe book with food items that begin with the first letter of the animal’s name.  The children could make-up fun themed recipes that they the animals would enjoy. This could be fun as the children think up different themed recipes to use and help create nutritional snack such as “Bear’s Berry Smoothie” and use fruit that they think bears would eat but blend them in a smoothie. Another recipe could be “Gorilla’s Groovy Granola” the children could help make a nutritional snack using foods they think the gorillas would eat. The children could also try making cookies and naming them “Koala’s Kooky Cookies”.  This exercise could be fun as the children learn about the different zoo animals and what they eat.

My Thoughts:

This book is fun, and if you have ever been at the zoo and watched the animals sometimes you think the animals are watching you.  I think this is a nice poetry book that could help children recognized rhyming words and it helps introduce the young reader to poetry if they have not been introduced to poetry.  This book would be great for emergent readers.

About the Author:

Meme Fox was born in in Australia in 1946.   Her parents were missionaries and they left Australia and moved to Africa when she was six months old. Mrs. Fox studied children’s literature at Flinder’s University.   Mrs. Fox has written over 40 books.  Mrs. Fox wrote Possum Magic, Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes, Where The Giant Sleeps, and Hello Baby!

References

Cullinan, B. & Galda L. & Sipe L. (2010) Literature and the Child. 7^th Ed. Belmont, CA. Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

Fox, M. (2013), Meme Fox. Retrieved from http://www.memfox.com/bibliography.html

Fox, M. (1996) Zoo-Looking. MONDO, New York, N.Y.