Dear Zoo needs a rewrite

[fuffymeloncauli]

Why are all the animals male?
"I wrote to the zoo to send me a pet." Is this gramatically correct?

No I am not. Sorry I appreciate this probably doesn't come across in this format very well.

I am not demanding it be removed from shelves. It's more a "ooh that wouldn't happen if it was published today" comment.

Adding The Hungry Caterpillar to this list. Always loved reading the book to the dc but it did always irritate me that it builds a cocoon. I always thought it was a chrysalis for butterflies and cocoons were for moths?

Don't worry, they won't still be interested in Dear Zoo by the time they're able to read. You can have Biff, Chip, and Kipper instead. Who start out doing some quite boring (and phonetically easy) stuff then one day randomly get into time traveling and going into space. Don't miss the one book that explains how it you'll be forever puzzled!

The snake being too scary always annoyed me, I changed it to slithery! And cocoon was changed to chrysalis in The Hungry Caterpillar here also.

thank you for the advice!

@LeatherJacketWedding - I'm an editor.

It's not a wording you'd use normally, but it's perfect for a picture book, as

I wrote to the zoo to [ask them to] send me a pet

is inferred.

And yes, your version is a tad too long!

I agree 100% with OP. Same as most characters in many games and books being male. eg guess who is majority male.

Its like females aren't real or something.

Subtle message being sent to little girls.

Of course older kids will read it. Its a perfect early reading book.

Plus an older sister might read to her younger sibling.

In the French version, some of the animals are actually female eg. Une giraffe uses the personal pronoun elle (she).

It's a shite book that makes no sense anyway. Zoos don't send you pets and means to keep rejecting them anyway, all that shipping around must be stressful for the animals.

I always changed the animals in the 'thats not my' books to be or she, I didn't like them being called it

It's dogs baking a cake. In reality they'd eat the butter and eggs and roll in the flour.

I'd never thought of it like that, but it rings very true.

But also my grandparents, who were the same age as Sophies parents, would never have dreamed of going out for an evening meal. Especially not to a caff. Too expensive and just Not Done.

I always thought the TTWCTT conveyed how quite ordinary people can gain extraordinary power for a time, when politics shifts reality.

The tiger is the same colour as an ordinary cat that's on the street when the family go out to the cafe.

The little touch of tiger within that cat had been boosted out of all proportion by political circumstance, for a time. Then shrunk back to normal, undetectable proportions.

So I think the tiger represents 'ordinary neighbour who became an SS officer' for example.

I don't think Sophie and her mother are scared, they find the situation curious though inconvenient. They know they have no choice but to obey.

Me too!! I had two copies gifted for my PFB read it to him once and refused to re-read as I thought it was giving him the wrong message 😳

What surprised me re-reading Dear Zoo is that I remembered it as being about a boy who wrote to the zoo.

I think I might bin it

Isnt it natural for a camel to get the hump though?