A Zoo Full of Rhymes

A Zoo Full of Rhymes is a collection of whimsical rhymes about creatures, familiar and unusual. When you come to this zoo, you will find exuberant, playful animals, birds, fish, and insects. You’ll meet an agile agouti, learn where the dugong lives and discover how a dik-dik stays cool on a hot African day. You’ll find out what the paca wishes he could eat. In all, there are 38 rhymes to enjoy.

This book is for all ages. Read it to younger ones and watch older readers giggle at the shrike’s antics. You can even leave it in the guestroom for Aunt Adelaide. (She’ll thank you politely, just like the wild boar.) Best of all, visit the zoo yourself and fall under the spell of these lovable and humorous creatures.

“…The verses, appropriate for young and old, feature wordplay and introduce readers to the real and imagined woes, wishes, habitats and activities of her creatures … the book’s storytelling isn’t poetry, but rather a playful, informal rhymes that teach and entertain…. It seems right that a small charming book like this one should be purchased at a small charming independent local book shop….”

—The Manchester Critic, Editorial Staff, November 20, 2020

"Ninety-two-year old Manchester, Mass., resident Katharine Stanley-Brown Abbott made her grandchildren laugh with her rhymes about all kinds of creatures, and she decided to share the laughs with a wider audience of kids. 'A Zoo Full of Rhymes' (SDP) is a whole big bestiary of a book—a pheasant, a toucan, a dugong, a lynx; a cheetah a white hen, a quetzal, a spitz—with 38 different animals and their various whimsies and woes. Lively illustrations by Kristin Richland complement the frisky wordplay and bring the whole zoo’s worth of creatures alive. 'Centipedes have a hundred legs. The number seems quite shocking. Do you suppose, when they get cold, they wear one hundred stockings?' This is Abbott’s second rhyme-based children’s book..."
-Reviewed by Nina MacLaughlin, Globe Correspondent, Boston Globe, November 19, 2020