Zoo's Who

Citation

Florian, Douglas. Zoo's Who: Poems and Paintings. Orlando: Harcourt, 2005.

Poetic Elements

Mr. Florian is a talented poet who uses a lot of end rhyme and rhyme within the lines of his poetry. Alliteration is present throughout, especially in Bushbaby which says “...Bushy back. Bushy knees. Bushy bush babies climb trees...”. His poems personify penguins taking a vacation and pigs going out to eat. Both the poems and illustrations appeal to our sense imagery while visualizing a shark's mouth and hearing the snake hissing. While the poems vary in length from 2 lines to 8 lines, depending on the subject, Mr. Florian is so precise in his use of poetic elements that he is able to fit quite a lot of emotional, figurative language into a short space.

Appeal and Overall Quality

Mr. Florian's poetry is a hit with children because they're so fun to read and a hit with adults because it gets the children reading poetry! They appeal in their shorter, easy to read length, the witty rhymes contained within, and his style of making his poems assume non-traditional shapes. The illustrations are an additional bonus, with so much hidden in the pictures. Readers will enjoy themselves as they look to discover how Mr. Florian laid out the illustrations to reflect the subject and marvel at what he's hidden in there. His illustration for a poem about slugs (not an overly appealing topic) shows a mountain and the progress of the slug is marked in years! Very cute! It takes a yucky creature and makes it fun, something he does very well. The poet's tone throughout tells the reader how much fun he had writing these poem and how much fun we, the reader, are supposed to have in reading them.

Layout

The book is neatly organized. The Table of Contents at the beginning guides the way to the 21 poems contained within. Each poem is spread out over two pages, with the poem centered on an all-white background on one side and the illustration, framed, on the other side. The book lists that the illustrations are “...watercolor, gouache, colored pencil, inks, tin foil, candy wrappers, shredded papers, stencils, rubber stamps, and much collage on primed brown paper bags...” which is a fair representation of the many styles he merges in his illustrations. His coloring and placement in the illustrations is quite a marvel.

Spotlight Poem

The Penguin

A penguin isn't thin—it's fat.

It has penguinsulation.

And it toboggans through the snow

On penguinter vacation.

The penguin's a penguinsome bird

Of black-and-white fine feather.

And it will huddle with its friends

In cold, penguindy weather.

Follow-Up Activity

This is such a fun poem! The illustration is just as interesting as the words, considering what he has worked into the picture. This poem would pair well with a unit on penguins, and could have an off-shoot into a language lesson since he plays with the word penguin so heavily in the poem. I would read the poem to the class and see if they catch his witticisms such as penguinsulation for insulation. We would make a list of those words and study the illustration to see what he has hidden there, such as the thermometer, the letters to spell 'penguin', the word coooooool, and 'ch, ch, ch'. I would then ask the group to come up with some other words we might want to use as he did in his poem. Penguindmills for windmills or penguinning for winning! After compiling a list of fun penguin wordplay words we might attempt to write a companion poem about penguins!

Reviews

From Booklist

K-Gr. 3. Florian continues his series of books that deal with animal life in all its permutations. These short poems often make their points in clever ways: "Lizards laze / And lizards bask. / What's their favorite food? / Don't ask!" Or "I'm not a seagull. / I'm royal. / I'm regal. / All birds are not / Created eagle." Not all the poems are so pithy, but there's plenty of humor throughout to keep kids going. However, children will need a certain sensibility to understand the wordplay. The artwork, which is simple enough for them to enjoy, always has unexpected bits. For instance, a painting of a shark--mouth open, teeth bared----is highlighted by a collage of what's inside his mouth: a tiny fan, a small pliers, and other miniature objects. A more sophisticated painting features a rhino--a swath of mauve filling up the frame, the animal's eyes and mouth barely distinguishable, a slash of white indicating its horn. The more astute the reader, the better the time he or she will have with this. But there are joys here for those who take the poems and pictures on face value as well. Ilene Cooper

"A first choice for the poetry shelves . . . this collection is toadally terrific."--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"Florian's distinctive, full-page watercolors are as playful as his verse."--Publishers Weekly (starred review)