Expo Book

Andrae totally phoned this one in. Guy can rhyme with his eyes closed, and here he has. The animals are overly anthropomorphised and stereotyped to boot. How many more times do we have to read about lions being fucking kings? And all the animals are he. Hello, reproduction? Guess what, lady tigers are scary too. And honestly, the zebra says his lady friend likes his stripes? She has stripes too, idiots. This book for me (no doubt unwittingly) perpetuates the patriarchal trope that the base unit of everything is male. When I read this to my child I can hear the contempt in my voice, so I'm giving this one away. It's a subtle boundary, but when it's crossed, it's crossed. The people who think this is somehow an exceptional book in my view just can't be reading enough picture books. Or perhaps I don't read enough shit ones so my standards are too high. Good, then. These are impressionable minds we're inserting ideas into. Let's not be seduced by old ideas. Andrae can write very well, he needs to be less lazy.