A Room With a Zoo - Softcover

Feiffer, Jules

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0786837039 ISBN 13: 9780786837038

Publisher: Hyperion Book CH, 2007

Synopsis

Julie wants a dog more than anything in the world, but her parents won't let her have one until she€™s old enough to walk it by herself. Julie does manage to collect some other pets while she waits, though: a sick cat, a hamster, a big, ugly fish, six smaller fish to keep the big fish company, a turtle, a strong-minded kitten, an unresponsive hermit crab, and a borrowed classroom rabbit that seems to be dying. All in one bedroom. Is enough ever enough for this critter connoisseur?

About this title

About the Author

Jules Feiffer is a Pulitzer-Prize winning syndicated comic-strip cartoonist and author. He has written and illustrated more than ten books, including I'm Not Bobby, By the Side of the Road, and The Daddy Mountain. Jules lives in New York City with his family.

From School Library Journal

Grade 2-4–Writing from the point of view of his nine-year-old daughter, Feiffer recounts the pet-strewn pathway to her finally getting a dog. Her indulgent parents feed Julie's passion for animals by getting a string of substitute animals that don't need to be walked: a cat proves standoffish, so they buy a hamster to entertain the cat. Next comes a carnivorous fish that eats its companions. Then a turtle. This lengthy chapter book includes the child's various friends, school scenes, and a trip to the country to visit a stepsister, which produces yet another cat, but a warm and friendly one. The final chaos, which involves her father falling and throwing his back out, the girl trying to wash a murky fish tank by herself while keeping the cats and hamster apart, and an ensuing trip to the emergency room, reads like a Keystone Kops episode. It isn't until Julie bravely receives 19 stitches that she gets her dog. Feiffer's hilarious ink-and-wash illustrations keep Julie and the animals in focus. Some children may delight in the tone of the narration, the childlike logic, and the winning way she takes charge of her pets and herself by story's end. Others will be turned off by this overindulged child, the wordy text, and the somewhat ludicrous idea that you buy five or six other pets before getting the one that the child really wants.–Susan Hepler, Burgundy Farm Country Day School, Alexandria, VA
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About this edition

• Publisher: Hyperion Book CH
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0786837039
• ISBN 13: 9780786837038
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 192
• Illustrator: Feiffer Jules