Wild About Books
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
OVER HALF A MILLION COPIES SOLD!
Winner of the E.B. White Read Aloud Award
It started the summer of 2002, when the Springfield librarian, Molly McGrew, by mistake drove her bookmobile into the zoo.
In this rollicking rhymed story, Molly introduces birds and beasts to this new something called reading. She finds the perfect book for every animal—tall books for giraffes, tiny ones for crickets. “She even found waterproof books for the otter, who never went swimming without Harry Potter.” In no time at all, Molly has them “forsaking their niches, their nests, and their nooks,” going “wild, simply wild, about wonderful books.” Judy Sierra’s funny animal tale coupled with Marc Brown’s lush, fanciful paintings will have the same effect on young Homo sapiens. Altogether, it’s more fun than a barrel of monkeys!
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Sierra (Silly and Sillier) and Brown dedicate this spirited volume to Theodor Seuss Geisel, to whom they give several affectionate nods (including a meter akin to And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street). After the Springfield (Dr. Seuss's hometown) librarian one day drives her bookmobile into the zoo, she settles into a chair with a book: "By reading aloud from the good Dr. Seuss,/ She quickly attracted a mink and a moose,/ A wombat, an oryx, a lemur, a lynx,/ Eight elephant calves, and a family of skinks." As the zoo's residents eagerly descend on the bookmobile, their species-appropriate selections will elicit chuckles from kids: a monkey grabs for a banana cookbook, two crocodiles open Peter Pan to the page featuring the croc that swallows a clock, giraffes pore over "tall books" (devoted to basketball, redwood trees, skyscrapers) and hyenas read joke books. Sierra's cleverly rhymed verse includes many playful embellishments, such as "Raccoons read alone and baboons read in bunches./ And llamas read dramas while eating their llunches." The critters then become wild about writing as well and pen so many new books that the librarian enlists their help to build a library branch at the zoo. Packed with funny flourishes, Brown's atwork reflects a loose, free style; his bustling paintings capture this endearing menagerie's antics. A winning paean to reading and writing. Ages 4-8.
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