1/23/2022 Picture Book Round-Up: Mesmerizing Menageries

Sasha Wallace
Jan 23, 2022
8 min read

This week’s collection is sure to teach your kiddo some valuable lessons (like why you should never fall asleep under a tree inhabited by monkeys. Oddly specific, but pertinent all the same, I assure you). But beyond that, one of these stories is basically Mario (of video game fame) in a parallel universe & the other is an allegory for how snowbirds first came to Florida & I could not love them more.

Picture Book 1 (something off the beaten path)

Title: But No Elephants

Author & Illustrator: Jerry Smath

Recommended for: Grades K-2

Basic plot: Grandma Tildy collects pets that help her with her household chores. As she prepares for winter, she is urged to adopt an elephant, too – but she has some serious misgivings about how things will go down & she resists the idea pretty adamantly.

Why I love it: It is absolutely ludicrous. What type of salesman peddles beavers & woodpeckers? How are they possibly trained in roofing & public transport? I feel like PETA needs to have a sit-down with this guy, because this can’t be legal. Yet, it is as endearing as it is entertaining. When Grandma Tildy finally allows the elephant into her domain, the results aren’t what you’d expect. It honestly explains the origin story behind The Villages, in my humble opinion.

This story is flat-out creative. Maybe Zillow should start including a section on whether or not the doorframe is elephant-compatible?

Where can you find it? Amazon, eBay, AbeBooks, Thriftbooks (cheapest $2.06 & up, used).

Extension activity: Have your kiddo do a research project on famous exotic pets. Whether it’s Dali’s ocelot, Wesley the Owl, or Mike Tyson’s tiger, it should capture their interest! They can do a poster board which includes pictures, information about the animal’s care & diet, etc.

They can even interview family members & friends on the weirdest pets they’ve ever had (for example, I’m convinced my Uncle Steven had an Arctic wolf living with him in Dania Beach, & someone on my stepfather’s side purportedly fostered a raccoon).

For further reading on this topic, there are tons of feel-good stories all over the internet about people temporarily adopting or rescuing animals that became injured, disoriented, or separated from their families. There are specialists & trainers who have worked with exotic species for the span of their careers, from Jane Goodall & David Attenborough to the dolphin & orca trainers at SeaWorld.

For an Exit Slip, you can ask them which exotic pet they’d want to own & why. You can even have them look up the laws & requirements for such a procurement based on where they live (in some U.S. states, it’s legal to have a pet lemur!) If there's a wildlife sanctuary or bird rescue nearby, contact them & ask how to volunteer. You might even work with your child's teacher to arrange a field trip or in-class visit to learn more.

You can pair this with a reading of 101 Dalmatians, The Story of Dr. Doolittle, or Mr. Popper’s Penguins, then discuss logistics. Each story explores themes of animals bonding with humans, humans adapting their lifestyles to accommodate their new furry friends & general pandemonium of too many four-legged (or webbed-footed) friends in the house.

Conversely, help your child sharpen their critical thinking & argumentation skills by debating them about the topic! Have them take a stand, then play devil’s advocate. Ask them if people should have potbelly pigs & venomous snakes as pets. Make them come up with reasons for or against & justify their stance.

Florida again comes into play here as the southern section of the state is the heart of the illegal wildlife trade. Thousands of rare species, some dangerous, are dumped in or trafficked through Miami & the Everglades each year, to the point where officials have greenlighted Burmese python hunting days to try to combat the problem. There are hundreds of stories of encounters with iguanas, Komodo dragons, & Nile monitors at botanical gardens & upscale beach resorts (my husband & I encountered the specimen below while visiting Vizcaya. I swear it’s like The Rescuers Down Under over there, a viewing of which would also pair nicely with this activity). Such news articles would be a nice exposure to nonfiction & current events.

I’d advise steering clear of some of the more somber & harrowing incidents concerning the matter (Siegfried & Roy, Timothy Treadwell, Steve Irwin, The Yearling) unless you think it would be beneficial & your child is mature enough to handle it.

Picture Book 2 (something my husband chose)

Title: Caps For Sale

Author & Illustrator: Esphyr Slobodkina

Recommended for: Grades K-2

Basic plot: A man selling stylish hats makes the mistake of taking a nap without first securing his wares. An epic battle – & some inadvertent reverse psychology – ensues.

Pictured above: Me a million years ago in my vintage red beret. Nowadays when I wear it, my husband says I look like the dude from MythBusters :(

Why I love it: It is simple all around – simple storyline, simple illustrations, simple wording – yet it manages to be quite striking & memorable despite its humble composition. The trees are speckled, like a Yayoi Kusama pumpkin. The sun is smiling like the Teletubbies one (but not creepy!). The peddler himself looks like Gomez from The Addams Family. Even the monkeys could be Curious George’s cousins. The countryside reminds me of Ahrweiler, Germany & the sky is this cyan blue that rarely gets used in children’s books anymore. It’s adorable & frivolous & hearkens back to a time when you could make a living selling hats & still have an hour or two for an afternoon nap. Somehow, even though I’ve never experienced those times, I still miss them.

Where can you find it? Amazon, eBay, AbeBooks, Thriftbooks, OverDrive (cheapest $1.01 & up, used). Most Barnes & Noble stores would have this in stock.

Extension activity: Take all the hats in your house. Pile them onto your youngster’s head & take pictures, because you’ll treasure these one day (& they’ll pray you don’t show them to a future girlfriend or boyfriend).

I’ve heard of a teacher doing an economic activity with this one – having kiddos figure out how many caps the peddler would have to sell & at what cost to make a living – but I prefer to read this one for pure enjoyment.

Picture Book 3 (the quintessential book for dinosaur lovers)

Title: Dinotopia

Author & Illustrator: James Gurney

Recommended for: Grades 6-8

Basic plot: In epistolary format, the reader follows the incredible adventures of biologist Arthur Denison & his young son Will as they (accidentally) arrive on the mysterious island of Dinotopia, where humans cohabit harmoniously with dinosaurs. Think Jurassic Park, but nothing goes wrong.

Why I love it: Humans have been obsessed with dinosaurs since forever. Everyone tears up at that one Land Before Time song, everyone has pretended to be a T-Rex when they couldn’t get their arms into their shirtsleeves, everyone has tried a dinosaur sundae or fruit snack, you catch my drift. What’s great about this book isn’t just the museum-quality illustrations or captivating storyline – but also the fact that it’s a decent size & chock full of useful vocab, so kids who read this are getting a 2-for-1 deal. They are enjoying themselves while simultaneously learning about dinosaurs & stretching their word repertoire. That’s an amazing flex!

Some pages are crammed with text, some are mostly drawings, but I swear the right balance is ever present. These are the moments that make me giddy as a teacher – when I find something my students love reading & they are doing it effortlessly & they don’t even realize that word count is racking up! There are so many exposures here – cursive writing, prehistoric terms, paleontology, Ice Age creatures (yes, there are woolly mammoths & you better read them in a Ray Romano accent), ancient occupations (scribes, bellows workers, wagon drivers, etc.), legal codes, song lyrics, sarcasm, jokes. Whether your child is learning words like “connoisseur” or “caldera” or just admiring how the waterfall on pages 62-63 looks like Niagara, they’ll enjoy rambling through the kiosks & canals of this mythical land.

It’s going to be a commitment, reading Dinotopia. It’s a whopping 159 pages. For anyone younger than middle school, I suggest a read-aloud, bedtime story gig. Maybe a few pages a day for as many weeks as it takes. Yes, it’s a long haul thing, but I promise, they’ll enjoy being jettisoned into this world.

Where can you find it? Amazon, eBay, AbeBooks, Thriftbooks (cheapest $4.35 plus shipping & up, used). Most Barnes & Noble stores carry at least one of the books in this series.

Extension activity: There’s unlimited potential with anything dinosaur-related. Puzzles, origami, toilet paper roll crafts – if you can think it, it exists (probably on Pinterest). Personally, I think there’s nothing better than going to a local museum, but if that isn’t an option, consider a virtual tour, along with some games & coloring pages. This website is a good one-stop-shop:

https://ctsciencecenter.org/blog/virtual-field-trip-dinosaurs/

You can also make dinosaur fossils using dough & action figures or molds. It might be fun to hide them in a large Tupperware of “dirt” (Oreo crumbs) & hand your kiddo a brush & small trowel to find them & dust them off.

You can also educate your child about amber & make your own pendants, if you’re into resins & epoxy art.

You can ask them to write a narrative about what would happen if dinosaurs appeared in the city one day. Is it possible for humans to live in accord with them? Why or why not? What would happen?

Finally, have your kiddo design a new dinosaur & name it. Be sure to have them explain their inspiration. A thesaurus doesn’t count.

(Side note: If you have the time, money, & inclination, don’t pass up this opportunity to get a dinosaur costume & embarrass your kid publicly! Here in Florida, I swear it’s a rite of passage).

Picture Book 4 (something new)

Title: The Wonder Garden

Author: Jenny Broom

Illustrator: Kristjana S. Williams

Recommended for: Grades 4-8

Basic plot: This is actually a nonfiction text. It’s basically a reference guide for different biomes & the species that call them home. Not really the type of thing you’d read in one sitting, yet valuable & noteworthy all the same.

It is separated into 5 main habitats:

The Amazon Rainforest
The Great Barrier Reef
The Chihuahuan Desert
The Black Forest
The Himalayan Mountains

Why I love it: It is so dang user-friendly. With me, reference texts always go to one extreme – too many illustrations & captions that I get lost, or none whatsoever to break up the monotony of script & I get bored. This book is different. The drawings are dominant, yet the text is well-organized into different small, bolded sections. The flow makes sense. For example, Amazonian birds are on one page, frogs, caiman, & anacondas are on the next, & the know-at-a-glance fact sheet starts the entire section off. It’s so easy to navigate. Scooch, Night at the Museum! This book too makes natural history come alive.

The drawings are mesmerizing in that, if you stare long enough, you’ll truly think homegirl stenciled half the animals, then stole the rest from a sticker book & modge-podged them on. Some are outlined in black, some are bright & unencumbered, all are dazzling. This book just screams je ne sais quoi.

I learned what a dugong is (no, not the Pokémon). I learned that a tarantula bite is equivalent to a bee sting (though I promise I don’t want to ever confirm that for myself). I learned that common kingfishers can see clearly underwater.

The list goes on. Not surprising from the author of Animalium. It felt like watching an episode of River Monsters & coming from me, that’s high praise.

Where can you find it? Amazon, eBay, AbeBooks, Thriftbooks (cheapest $1.79 & up, used).

*A note about the content – some of the animals have harems*

Extension activity: What habitat do you live in? Have your child do some investigating & find out! What’s the apex predator in your neighborhood? What’s the vegetation like? Climate?

Beyond that, this is more a book you consult if you have a burning need to know more about certain animals, rather than a springboard for further study. There’s no plot. It’s just a beauty to behold.