The Lost Zoo

Rating:
Summary: A witty read-aloud book not widely known
Review: This book is a collection of fourteen poems telling the story of Noah's Ark and several strange animals, such as the Squilililigee, the Lapalakes, and the Ha-Ha-Ha, that perished in the flood because they did not make it onto the Ark. As explained in a prose introduction to the poems, the story was told to Cullen by his cat Christopher, with whom Cullen shares credit for the work. Christopher also annotates the poems with his own verse notes providing more detail on certain events in the story and scolding Cullen for incorrect grammar.

The poems are highly imaginative and fun to read aloud, with varying rhyme schemes and meters, capturing the characters of the different animals described. The poems have understated morals - if the Sleepamitemore had not been so lazy and the Double-Headed Hoodinkus not so quarrelsome, they would have survived - but are much more focused on being silly.

The prose introduction from Cullen explaining how his relationship with Christopher Cat came to be creates a strong feeling of kinship with both narrators. A prose epilogue encourages us to reconsider Christopher's reliability as a narrator, while at the same time challenges us to consider the inner lives of our own pets.

The poems are accompanied by illustrations of the various animals that did and did not make it on the Ark. The illustrations, done in color-washed black and white line drawings, are dark with a loose, sketch-like quality. Though not tightly integrated with the text, the illustrations do give life to the fantastical creatures described in the poems. Younger children will enjoy the rhythm and the subject matter of the poems themselves and older children will enjoy the explanation of the origins of the poems.