If I Ran the Zoo, etc.

This is a fun story about what would happen if young Gerald McGrew ran the zoo. Of course HE knows where to find the most interesting animals as opposed to the boring everyday animals you would find at most zoos (such as a lion!!!) We read this on our way to the Denver Zoo this morning. My kids were under no illusions. When asked if they thought they would see any of THOSE animals they both said no.
Although we did not see any of the Seuss variations we saw more animals than I have ever seen in one day. I am still proud of our humble Hogle Zoo but it didn't fare well in comparison. We spent 6 1/2 hours at the zoo. My feet are tired.


This is probably our most read of the Seuss books. I guess my kids love a good tongue-twister, or watching their mom attempting them. This book comes with a warning: as all of the best books should. Warning: expect lots of laughing, lots of absurdity (of course, it IS Dr. Seuss) and do some tongue exercises before attempting (possibly practice it in private first). I Love the rhythm mixed with the tongue twisting which inevitably happens in many of his books. This is my favorite line, "When beetles fight these battles in a bottle with their paddles and the bottle's on a poodle and the poodle's eating noodles. . . they call this a muddle puddle tweetle poodle beetle noodle bottle paddle battle." Sheer perfection.


This has never been one of my favorites. I'm not sure why. Possibly it's due to my aversion towards indoor messes? I LOVE outdoor messiness. I did see a plaque in a friends home recently which made me realize I need to relax a tidge. It went something like this, "Please excuse our mess, my kids are making memories".
Anyhow- this was one of my daughters favorites a few years back and I learned to really enjoy reading it out loud. Seuss almost always (including this book) uses anapestic tetrameter which is made up of four rhythmic units, or anapests, which contain two weak beats and then a strong beat with variations that omit the first weak beat or add a weak beat at the end. If that doesn't make sense what it really means is an awful lot of fun for someone to read out loud. I find myself getting carried away by the rhythm when I read Seuss to my kids to the point that I don't notice the words as words some of the time but as fun sounds that work well together.