  | Full Text Reviews: School Library Journal - 12/01/2012 Gr 3–6—Growing up in a zoo should be full of adventures, but 11-year-old Whit is bored by the same routine, his homeschooling, and his lack of human friends. His father is the elephant trainer and fond of giving lectures about when he was a boy, and his mother is so absorbed with her position as Meadowbrook Zoo Director that she barely notices her son. When a girl starts showing up daily to draw the birds, Whit is intrigued and determined to make friends. After dubbing her the Bird Girl, he learns that his new friend is there to escape a troubled home. Whit feels the desire to help, but suddenly he is drawn in too far. Things come to a head when Bird Girl asks him for a favor that he's not comfortable doing. While Latham's plot has promise, her delivery is lackluster. This is solid storytelling, but there is very little tension, even in the scenes with Bird Girl's volatile father. Character development is somewhat thin, and the illustrations, while probably meant to mimic the drawings in Bird Girl's sketchbook, give the book a much younger feel than its intended audience. It's an uneasy cohesion.—Jamie Kallio, Orland Park Public Library, IL - Copyright 2012 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission. Bulletin for the Center... - 01/01/2013 Eleven-year-old Whit Whitaker has been raised in the zoo where his parents work, with only the zoo workers, the animals, and his homeschool teacher as companions. Increasingly frustrated by his lack of social opportunities and his parents’ seeming lack of interest in him, Whit is thrilled to make friends with Stella, a girl his age who comes to the zoo every day to draw the birds. When Whit sneaks off to accompany Stella to her home, however, he learns that there are worse homes than the zoo: Stella’s dad, disabled by a truck accident years ago, is addicted to pain pills, is verbally abusive, and has a gun, which he used to wound Stella’s brother, who has since run away. Stella wants to run away, too, and she has a place in mind-the zoo-and Whit must decide whether or not to help her hide even as he figures out how to confront his own parents about his desire for a life beyond the bounds of the zoo’s fence. The intriguing premise of a kid raised in a zoo will appeal tremendously to animal-loving kids, and Latham provides lots of fascinating zoo specifics without disrupting the narrative flow. The story is credibly grounded, and Whit’s moral dilemma concerning Stella is compelling. the soft shading and simplified figures in Graegin’s occasional black and white illustrations are somewhat more warm and cozy than the story itself, but they’re attractive decorations. Kids who wish they could live at the zoo will find this a satisfying read. JH - Copyright 2013 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. Loading...
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