The Zoo: Christopher Wilson

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The fact that, at a critical point in the plot, Patterson skips five years for no apparent reason except that he apparently got bored. Dogs are not permitted into Edinburgh Zoo as they can cause stress to some of our animals. We only permit assistance dogs. See our policy for more details.

I've never read Patterson before. I thought this premise sounded interesting, and hoped that maybe this book would fill the niche left by my running out of Crichton books I feel like reading/re-reading. The 'Horned and the Hoofed' includes an animal that " ... most people know the best ... " which of course is the reindeer because Santa Claus supposedly uses this species to pull his sleigh along. The Springbok, Gnu, Eland, Elk, Chamois and Ibex are dealt with and if the Gibbon is Master of the Trees, then the Ibex and one or two other breeds of goat could be labeled Masters of the Mountains. They have extraordinary powers that allow them to traverse sheer cliff-faces that would give us the Willies. Watch a few of these animals and you'll get some idea of how 'Snowy' was able to go where no man has gone before. My God was this an awful book. If I had any respect whatsoever for Patterson after his awful "Cross Country," it has totally disappeared. In the meantime, people are still going out into the woods to go on fishing trips while the military has decided that the only solution to the problem is to bomb all the animals. Kill 'em all. The book shows the role of a wildlife veterinarian and veterinary assistant so would work brilliantly with your teaching on ‘People Who Help Us’.In the midst of all of this happening, we have the Government officials who couldn't be bothered with taking action because that would just worry people and take focus away from their next banquet. They abuse their power and position, effectively making this worse. Give a person an enormous amount of power and they will abuse it with zero regard for anyone else. Snowy' for the outsiders was a baby goat adopted temporarily by an animal 'Whiz' named Philip who was introduced to Enid Blyton Fans in a book entitled 'The Island of Adventure.' Snowy showed his prowess in 'Mountain' of the same series.

The "big discovery" in Oz's apartment just prior to the time jump feels entirely gratuitous, since it's never mentioned again. Either that or Oz is a cold bastard. Oh. While he's gone to Botswana, he asks his New York girlfriend to come in once a day and feed his pet chimpanzee, Atilla. Well, that's kind of like saying "don't go into the basement, Martha!" while the spooky music plays. Naturally by the time he and the new girlfriend return, he finds the body of the old girlfriend (well that was convenient) in the apartment that has been totally trashed, and the chimp gone. Curtain. EB's very entertaining account of a small boy's confrontation with a Golden Eagle can be read in the final chapter of 'Shadow the Sheepdog' where Johnny with the help of his dog actually killed one. Justifiably it seems, because the bird was threatening some lambs on his dad's farm.Some of our indoor enclosures/attractions may open later than the stated opening time and may close 30 minutes prior to the zoo's stated closing time Tek' and his family are the otters that Susan and Richard met in "Enid Blyton's Animal Lover's Book.' The sexism. The first (and actually only) sex scene in the whole book is so flagrantly written to play up Oz's rampant masculinity and dominance that it was unintentionally hilarious. Later, when Oz meets his obligatory Sexy Science Babe, every single time she's mentioned he reminds us how gorgeous she is, how very pretty and delicate and small, how totally unlike every other scientist woman he's ever met. Blargh. Not only that, but her whole role is to admire, cheer-lead, support, fall in love, and need comforting and defending.

Humans are more distanced from animals than at any other time in history or pre-history and this is not a good thing.Being dropped into the middle of the story's HAC time line kind of throws one off, too. Loses some urgency, because you don't get the initial build-up and then when the time jump happens in the middle of the book, any new urgency built falls down. Maybe if the story had been built in three parts, it would have work, but the pacing just felt odd. I realize maybe it was more realistic, but could've been done better. I had never read a James Patterson book before Zoo. I will never read a James Patterson book after Zoo.