This informational text about the history of zoos shares the information in a fun and interesting way so that children don't realize they're gaining information and facts from the book. Beginning with how rulers in ancient times kept exotic animals to show power and wealth, children are exposed to countries around the world like Iraq, Ethiopia, Greece, and Egypt. Covering several millennia, the book includes the development of collecting animals for visitors to view and how zoos were eventually a place to protect animals from becoming endangered and/or once they became endangered. The pictures include animals of every type and the text is written in short paragraphs about each country or empire that is presented, which makes it an easy read for children.

This informational text allows 2nd and 3rd grade students to gather facts about animals and zoos throughout history in a simple and clear manner. Using a determining importance strategy, it would be a great book to allow students to practice making their own decisions about what is and isn't important in creating a timeline of the events discussed throughout the book. I would also use this story to help students understand and write about the reasons that a zoo to protect animals is important. This builds their argumentative/persuasive/opinion writing skills. ( )

"What's New? The Zoo!" is an informational book that explains how zoos are anything but new. It provides short historical anecdotes about different zoos and zoo-like places dating as far back as 4,400 years ago. It gives some historical context along with each zoo story, showing the impact and importance of zoos throughout history. It discussed how new trade routes lead to a diversity in zoos, while in the 20th century, zoos began moving to be more for science and research than for human entertainment. As an informational book, "What's New? The Zoo!" is - in my opinion - a fantastic choice for younger students. It does't bog the reader down with too many details, and the illustrations are very engaging and correlate well to the different stories. I like how it did end by hi lighting the importance of zoos for protecting animals and educating scientists and everyone else about animals and took the emphasis away from zoos as entertainment, which I personally do not agree with. It's not extremely out of the box, but this book would be perfect to read before taking your class to the zoo to educate them about why zoos are important, but it would also be useful for using along with social studies or history when teaching about a time period that is mentioned in the book.
Media: Ink and watercolor on watercolor paper ( )

A quick tour of zoos through the centuries and throughout the world. Entertaining and appealing but the text would benefit from less cartoonish illustrations. Some mention of zoos being controversial among some people would make for a more well-rounded presentation. ( )

What's New? The Zoo? is an illustrated overview of zoos that combines history with hard science and social science. Kathleen Krull outlines the history of zoos, and offers insight into what compels us to keep animals, what we've learned from them, and what has changed in zoos since the founding of the first known zoo,

"4,400 Years Ago, The Sumerian City of Ur, in Present-Day Iraq
The king of beasts lunges and roars. The King of Ur roars right back, feeling like the ruler of all nature. How delicious to wield his power over dangerous animals! It's the world's first known zoo, and all we're sure about (from clay tablets in libraries) is that is has lions."

From this beginning, Krull highlights transitional moments in zoos throughout the ages and across the globe. Just a few examples include:

Ancient Egypt and Rome where zoos were created to impress
Ancient China where the zoo was a contemplative and sacred place
Sweden where the science of zoology was established in 1735
The U.S. National Zoo where the concept of zoos protecting threatened species was introduced
South Africa's Kruger National Park where the protection of rhinos was so successful that rhinos were delivered to other zoos
Germany, 1907, where the "cageless zoo" concept is introduced
(Did you know that Aristotle wrote the first encyclopedia of animals?)

On most pages, humorous, watercolor illustrations nestle around paragraphs of simple font against white space. Several pages, however (including one depiction of fifteen buffalo waiting for a train at Grand Central Station, 1907), are double-spreads with many amusing details.

The very talented Kathleen Krull never disappoints! If you like your science accessible and entertaining, this is the book for you.

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