(Oops, I forgot to put in the Resource divisions when this was first published. That's been fixed now. 4/24/16)
Picture Book Resources
A Sick Day for Amos McGee by Philip C. Stead, ill. by Erin E. Stead
Amos McGee works at the zoo and takes good care of his animal friends meeting their unique needs each day. So when Amos is sick, his animal friends come to his house and take care of him.
Activity Tie-ins:
- Fair vs Equal: A common complaint of children (and adults) are that things aren’t fair. What they really mean is that things aren’t equal. But is equal treatment always best? This book does a great job of defining the difference between which is best without even meaning to. Ask readers to evaluate how Amos McGee treats his animal friends. Is his treatment the same for everyone? Why does Amos do it that way? How does this concept apply to real life?
- Kindness: Amos shows kindness to each of his friends, and when he is sick they return the favor. His kindness was contagious. Have students devise ways to make kindness contagious. Or have them plan to thank someone for an everyday kindness that is often overlooked/taken for granted.
- Caldecott Medal: This book won the Caldecott Medal. You can use this book when talking about the Caldecott or illustration awards.
Good Night, Gorilla by Peggy Rathman
The zoo keeper thinks he's locked the animals up tight for the night. But he doesn't notice them being let out of their cages and following him home, until he says good night to his wife …and others respond.
Activity Tie-ins:
- Drama: This would be an easy book to have students turn into a little humorous play or puppet performance.
- Beginning Readers: With it’s low word count, this is a super pick for a child just beginning to get the hang of this reading thing.
- Comic Timing: If you’re studying humor in literature or art, this book is nice and short, and easily analyzed for the hows and whys of its laughter-inducing-qualities.
- Animals: Lots of little readers love this book just for the parade of zoo animals in it. See if they can identify the various critters who are sneaking out of the zoo.
Middle Grade Fiction Resources
Belly Up (FunJungle, #1) by Stuart Gibbs
The world is all excited about the brand new FunJungle zoo and theme park that recently opened. And everyone has fallen in love with the park's main attraction and mascot, Henry the Hippo. Teddy Fitzroy has a front row seat for all of the action. His mother is a keeper at FunJungle, using her expertise on gorillas to help them develop and maintain the Monkey Mountain attraction. His father is a wildlife photographer that FunJungle hired to do official photo shoots of the animals, but they also still let him do freelance work. So Teddy has an inside scoop on things when Henry the Hippo turns up dead. Teddy knows that pretty much no one who worked at FunJungle actually liked Henry. Most hippos are dangerous and mean, but Henry took it to another level. Teddy decides to sneak in and watch Doc do the autopsy on Henry, and so he overhears that Doc thinks someone purposefully murdered Henry but he's told to cover up that story by the head of operations and the man in charge of public relations. Teddy can't just let a murderer go free, even if Henry was a nasty piece of work. He starts to investigate but the only one who will take him seriously is the owner of the park's daughter, Summer. As the two of them start collecting facts, though, it is clear someone really, really doesn't want the truth to come out. Who's willing to try and kill a keeper's son to cover up the death of a hippo?
Few writers can pull off the traditional murder mystery genre for middle grade successfully, but by making the main murder victim an animal, Stuart Gibbs found a way. It isn't too dark or brutal for the target age range and it still includes all the best parts of a traditional murder mystery. Teddy is just as fun to follow around as your most spunky and charming adult private detective. The mystery is just as compelling and complex, with red herrings abounding. And of course, the setting is fantastic. How many people get to run around a state of the art zoo to solve their crimes? Quite fun. It kept me guessing and entertained to the end. And I love that it is written in such a way it will appeal to both boys and girls. An all around winner.
Activity Tie-ins/Target Readers:
- Mystery Read: If you’re looking for a puzzling mystery for a middle grade reader, this is a fantastic pick (and so are the rest of the FunJungle books).
- Third Culture Kids: Having spent a majority of his life growing up in the jungles of Africa, Teddy is bit of an abnormal kid. And other TCKs will likely appreciate his challenges fitting in as a normal kid in Texas.
- Healthy Parent/Child Relationship: One of the things I love most about the FunJungle series is that Teddy and his parents have a great relationship. He talks to them about his problems, they listen, and they form a plan as a family. It’s a rarity in kids’ literature to find a family like theirs, but so important to have a model of a family team.
- Contemporary Fiction: For kids hunting down a realistic or contemporary (whatever you want to call it) genre read, this is a great option.
- Zoos: Gibbs worked at a zoo at one time, and he did excellent research that comes through in details of what it takes to set up a zoo like FunJungle, as well as everyday maintenance and runnings of a big zoo in ethical ways. For those interested in what it is like behind the scenes at a zoo, this gives a realistic sneak peek.
- Animal Lovers: There’s tons of interactions with animals all through this book and the rest of the series, and they do a good job of building conservation awareness too. Teddy and others talk frequently about best practices of zoos to create a place that is happy and healthy for the animals, and ways they help save endangered species.
How to Outrun a Crocodile When Your Shoes Are Untied (My Life Is a Zoo, #1) by Jess Keating
Ana's life is over. That's all there is to it. First, her best friend Liv has moved to the other side of the planet, and is actually enjoying it in New Zealand instead of planning how to hitchhike back to Denver. Second, there's the Sneerers, determined to make Ana's 7th grade year a torment to the very end (and succeeding nicely now that Liv isn't there with snarky comebacks). Third, she has to give a speech in English before the end of the year and that usually never ends well. Fourth, math. It hates her. And as if that wasn't enough, her famous zoo man TV star grandpa comes to visit and decides that the whole family is going to be on TV. Oh, and her mom thinks she should do a presentation at the zoo. Ana just wishes she could disappear into anonymity and maybe all her problems would go away.
Ana Wright is the perfect character for middle school girls who just don't feel like they fit in. While her parents are zookeepers, and Ana spends more time with animals than most people, the majority of her problems and emotions are things any tween will understand. There are several middle school girls at our school who adore her, the wit and humor with which she faces circumstances, and the realistic way that though not everything goes right, she realizes her life is not over. While I sometimes found myself wondering if Ana's voice was a little too mature for her age, and seriously wanted some of her problems resolved earlier (where were the adults when she needed them???), I know Ana will be a fun boost of hope for those in the midst of the horrors of middle school. And of course, animal lovers will be jealous of the life Ana takes for granted.
Activity Tie-ins/Target Readers:
- Contemporary Read: Hand this to a middle school girl who needs to identify with someone else just trying to make it through these rough years.
- Compare/Contrast: Readers who devour both this book and Belly Up can compare and contrast the lives of Ana and Teddy. Both have parents who work at zoos, and both are middle schoolers who live at zoos. However, they have lots of differences too.
- Animal Lovers: This series is packed with lots of fun facts about animals for readers to gobble up.
The Menagerie (Menagerie, #1) by Tui T. Sutherland & Kari Sutherland
Logan is a new kid in town. He and his dad have moved out to middle of nowhere Wyoming after his mom sent them a postcard saying she wasn't coming back. Logan thinks his dad is likely trying to find her, but he's pretty much given up hope of ever seeing her again. At school he meets Zoe, a worry wort, and Blue, a super chill guy. They say they are looking for Zoe's dog, so Logan volunteers to help. It turns out her "dog" isn't actually a dog, but six griffin cubs who escaped from a very secret Menagerie for magical creatures run by Zoe's parents (and where Blue also lives). The cubs have escaped at the worst possible time because the Menagerie is being threatened with getting shut down if they don't measure up to inspection in just a few days time. Logan is clueless to any of this until he goes home to find one of the griffin cubs under his bed. Logan is able to talk to the cub, and he helps return it. Zoe's family quickly recruits him to help find the rest of the missing cubs, figure out who let them escape, oh and try to get the Menagerie ready in time for inspection. Logan is thrilled to help, especially since he seems very gifted in communicating with the animals and finding them, but passing inspection (and living through his experiences at the Menagerie) may prove harder than he thought. There are some strange things going on. And then you get the cliffhanger...
Only one minor plot line is resolved in this first book. So you need to make sure you grab all three books of this series at once. Trust me. You don’t want to have to wait between them like I did. (There are hazards of reading a series as it comes out, book by book over several years.) The plot line really gets you hooked. It has the right touch of humor scattered throughout too, and it is fun to discover fantasy creatures along with Logan (which is usually where the humor comes in).
Activity Tie-ins/Target Readers:
- Fantasy Creature Lovers: I love the way Sutherland depicts various fantasy creatures in this series. The griffins need channels for lots of energy, the unicorns are vain as all get out, the dragons are wily, the golden goose has serious mental issues, etc. There’s lots of mythological creatures packed in, and they are quite the wild and zany crew. I have several readers who ask me for books about fantasy creatures, and this is usually one of my first recommendations.
- Mystery Fiction: There’s an ongoing mystery throughout the series about who is sabotaging the Menagerie and why. Give this book to a reader who wants to get hooked on a series.
An Elephant in the Garden by Michael Morpurgo
A little old lady in a nursing home tells everyone about the elephant who used to live in her garden. Everyone brushes her off as an old woman losing her marbles, everyone except one boy. Karl is the son of one of the nurses and comes to visit on a snow day. He quickly makes friends with Lizzie, the old lady, and wants to hear all about her elephant. His skeptical mother listens in and soon both mother and son are thoroughly wrapped up in Lizzie's amazing true story.
When Lizzie was a teenager she was growing up in Dresden, Germany during WWII. Her father was off fighting, and to make ends meet, her mother or Mutti as she called her, took a job at the Dresden zoo. Mutti had really taken to one of the young elephants whose mother had died, so when the zoo started making plans to shoot the more dangerous animals if Dresden were bombed Mutti begged and pleaded with the zoo manager to let her keep the young elephant Marlene. And so it was that Marlene came to live in Lizzie's back garden. Lizzie's younger brother Karli instantly fell in love with Marlene. One night as they were out taking a family walk with Marlene, the bombers came. The family hurried out of town as their home burned behind them. They made it to their Aunt and Uncle's farm where they ran into a Canadian soldier whose plane had been hit. At first they are very wary of Peter, but when he saves Karli after falling through the ice in the pond, all differences are forgotten and he is adopted as a member of the family for the trek West. Though they'd like to stay at the farm (especially Marlene who loves all the hay), the Russians are headed closer and it would be safer for everyone if they went West and ran into the Americans instead. So with Marlene, their constant conversation starter (and welcome distraction from any who would notice Peter) they set out West to try and make it to safety.
This is one of those stories that if it weren't based somewhat on a true story, it probably would never have made it to print. But it is (Morpurgo tells about the real story in the back of the book). It is touching and sweet. Morpurgo gives a good flavor for WWII without going into gritty details, making this much more kid safe. Animal fans will absolutely eat this story up.
Activity Tie-ins/Target Readers:
- WWII: If you’re looking for a book set during WWII but isn’t too gritty or gory, this could be just what you’re looking for. The seriousness of the situation comes through, but it isn’t anywhere near as heavy as many other WWII books.
- Research Extension: There’s some more information out there on the real story that inspired Morpurgo’s book. Have students research it, or tales of other zoo animal rescues during wars.
- Historical Fiction: Historical fiction is one of the least read genres by middle graders and teens in my library, and it seems to be a worldwide trend. History is “boring” and many kids would rather read about someone just like them or in an entirely different world. However, thrilling WWII stories and animal stories do circulate. So this is one of those few historical fiction books that I can actually convince readers to check out.
- Animal Lovers: Animal lovers are sure to fall in love with Marlene the elephant, and will anxiously watch her journey to safety with her human friends.
Nonfiction Resources
The Medici Giraffe: and Other Tales of Exotic Animals and Power by Marina Belozerskaya
This book is as much a collection of obscure history as stories about animals. Ms Belozerskaya highlights seven different powerful people of history, tells their histories and how exotic animals played an important role in further establishing their authority or demonstrating it. As such, each chapter is a broader history on the life of each person to give the full setting of how exotic animals played this role. Those covered are Ptolemy Philadelphos of Alexandria, Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (aka Pompey) of Rome, Lorenzo de Medici, Hernán Cortés, Rudolf II the Holy Roman Emperor and king of Hungary and Bohemia, Josephine Bonaparte, and William Randolph Hearst.
I generally have to force myself to read non-fiction, but I found this a highly readable and very interesting non-fiction book. It flowed well, and many of the histories focused on people or aspects of people/time periods that are often not the focus of study in typical history classes or books. I feel like I learned a lot. There was only one time when I caught an error (the author mentioned that one of the famous people was given a certain number of "pineapple trees" as a gift...but pineapples grow on ground plants, not trees), and I felt like on the whole it was well researched with inclusion of primary sources.
Activity Tie-ins/Target Readers:
- Zoos in History: There are some CRAZY menageries mentioned in this book. Rudolf II’s may take the cake with his lions that roamed free and attacked several people. If you want stories of some interesting private animal collections, look no further.
- Animals in History: This book points out the way exotic animals have played into demonstrations of wealth and status in history, and even played roles in negotiations between nations. It’s a part of history that doesn’t often make it into the history books.
- Biographies: Each chapter stands on its own enough, you could also read this just for the one chapter on a certain person or time period that interests you.
- Microhistory Fans: There are some people who really love microhistories (a historical book that focuses on one thing and its influence on history through time), and this is an option for them.
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