Do Kangaroos Wear Seatbelts?
PreSchool-Grade 2–As a mother buckles her young son safely in for a trip to the zoo, he begins a series of questions challenging the necessity of common safety measures. With playful and imaginative responses using the zoo animals they see in her explanations, his mother assures him that all creatures protect their young. "All kinds of parents everywhere–/wet or dry, low or high,/whether their bodies are large or thin,/covered with scales or fur or skin–/do their best to take good care/of their little ones." The humorous illustrations, including a monkey in a helmet, depict the absurdity of animals employing strollers and holding hands for safety. However, the intended audience will certainly relate to the human mother's unrelenting, though inspired, insistence that her son comply. Although the rhyming text is occasionally awkward and a bit forced, the warm, color-infused illustrations capture both the love of a parent for her child and the silliness of creatures behaving like humans. A colorful and reassuring tale.–Piper L. Nyman, formerly at Fairfield Civic Center Library, CACopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.