The Universal Zoo

Come on down to the Universal Zoo!

Want to see amazing animals?

Buy a ticket join the queue.

This poetry book is jam packed with the fantastical creatures you might meet if you were to visit the Universal Zoo at the end of the universe.

The poems describe an amazing variety of creatures, The shy Shimmereen, The Tickleix who is always laughing, The Snoralotz who unsurprisingly does nothing but snore and the shape shifting Morph. As well as these original inventions there is a touch of the more familiar and if you have ever wondered whether dragons exist you will soon find out if you visit the Universal Zoo.

The whole book is playful and packed with inventive explorations of ideas such as what a wordy bird might eat (anagrams of course!) To find out about the Upside Downer, readers have to turn the book – upside down! The poems are full of word play with a variety of forms and styles including repeated choruses, rhyme, similes, kennings and limericks.

There are directions in case you might like to visit the zoo and instructions too, visitors are advised not to feed the animals, ‘Never Feed the Gronk’ is just one of the poems which invite performance in its call and response format.

The layout is attractive and the illustrations are great fun too though young readers might also have fun visualising some of these creatures themselves before seeing the artist’s interpretation.

As well as being an enjoyable read, the book has a more serious message too – The Universal Zoo is the ‘conservation place’ at the far end of space aiming at saving species. The inclusion of an extinct animal (the dodo) serves as a reminder of what we have lost in the past and the imaginary Grizzard, the last of its species, its habitat disappearing, hunted to near extinction, represents endangered animals in our world today.

The end of the book includes an invitation to young readers to try their hand at being a universal zoo poet with helpful tips.

A highly entertaining and thought-provoking poetry book for young readers.