Two brothers and their parents spend a day at the zoo, looking at the animals in the cages - or is it that the animals are watching the visitors? This winner of the 1993 Kate Greenaway Medal is a teasing examination of the relationship between man and animals, and the role of zoos.
Zoo ANNOTATION A boy endures a tedious visit to the zoo with his family.
FROM THE PUBLISHER Winner of the Kate Greenaway Medal FROM THE CRITICS Booklist . . . Browne is just as sly as ever . . . He brings the surreal and the real together to give . . . a world transformed . . .
Publishers Weekly Browne ( Gorilla ; Willy the Wimp ) again exhibits his inimitable dry wit, describing a less than idyllic family outing to the zoo. The young narrator paints an amusingly bleak picture of the day's incidents: Dad blames him when he and his brother fight during the slow, traffic-clogged trip to the zoo; Dad and Mum insist on viewing the boring animals first; and it seems that lunch time will never arrive. Worse yet, through it all, their buffoonish father embarrasses them with his relentless antics and jokes. But a lunch of burgers, fries, beans and ice cream--and a stop at the gift shop--save the day. Browne's effectively stark, magnificently realistic illustrations of the zoo animals offer a distinct contrast to his clever renditions of the supposedly human visitors to the zoo, many of whom bear an uncanny resemblance to the creatures in the cages. Younger readers may not appreciate Browne's cunning comment on human nature, or the engaging irony of Mum's closing comment: ``I don't think the zoo really is for animals . . . I think it's for people.'' All ages. (Feb.)
BookList - Stephanie Zvirin Who's looking in through the bars of the zoo cages? And who's looking out? That is what Browne's asking when he takes us along with a boy, his younger brother, mother, and father on a visit to the zoo. It's the family dynamics, colorfully pictured on the left-hand pages above the text, that capture our attention first. Mum's drab and rather quiet; the boys look and act like monkeys, wrestling each other, impatient for food; and Dad is a boor, "really embarrassing" when he lies about his son's age, laughs at his own jokes, or pounds his chest. On opposite pages are zoo animals and settings rendered in extraordinary detail. Gradually we notice how cleverly the different paintings mesh: we see the boys' fight mirrored in the quarrels of baboons; recognize features of the father's flat broad face in the visage of the gorilla; and we suddenly realize that while zoo visitors in the background are wearing parkas and suits and sneakers, they also have flippers and tails. Browne is just as sly as ever. Here, as in "Changes" , he brings the surreal and the real together to give us a world transformed. This time, however, he challenges us to examine not only the things we take for granted, but also the way we are.
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