McBroom's Zoo

I had meant to get rid of some books at a book fair Saturday, but that didn't end up happening. I had meant to not bring home new books, but I'm weaker willed than I thought. Sometimes picking up a book you've just skimmed through is a bad idea. You get it home and realize that it's full of stuff you'd rather not read to your kids, or it's just boring and tedious. Not so with this one! It is a big long, and more suited for the older end of the 4 - 8 (or even older) range, but if they can sit through it's it's a great big whopper of a tale about how a tornado "sucks up" the McBroom farm, with all its tomatoes (they turn to ketchup, of course), and how for a while afterward the family gathers up all sorts of fanciful critters like a "hidebehind". Of course, it's all true! Don't you know McBroom would rather sit on a porcupine than tell a lie? (Of course he DOES sit on a porcupine at the end. LOL!) Very funny, and I adore the illustrations. Definitely pick up this book. I intend to get more in the series!

I must have read McBROOM'S ZOO shortly after it was first published, in 1972; it was I believe the 5th-published McBroom book and it came just after McBROOM'S GHOST which is the other one in the series I remember from childhood. I'm pleased to say that I still enjoy these books nearly as much as I did as a small child, and this one in particular remains special. Art is by the series' original artist Kurt Werth, who I think improves a bit over earlier efforts here. Josh McBroom, his wife Melissa, and their rather large brood of young'ins (WillJILLHesterCHESTERPeterPOLLYTimTOMMaryLARRYandlittleCLARINDA) seem to be facing catastrophe when a freak twister comes along and uproots all of the marvelous topsoil from their magical one-acre farm, but the wily and resourceful McBroom follows the twister (turned red because of all the ripe tomato plants it has ripped up, and leaving a ready tomato-flecked trail to follow) and tracks down his soil miles away. It looks like it will be impossible to cart it all back, as the struggling farmer doesn't have the money to hire all the trucks necessary, but on the way to and from the pile of topsoil the McBrooms come across a whole strange passle of critters that have been deposited by the tornado, rare beasts that they reckon no one hither or yon has seen, and a plan is hatched to start up a zoo in the hole left by the farm, charge admission and get the topsoil back. Among the oddities: a Sidehill Gouger, with legs on one side much shorter than on t'other a Silver-Tailed Teakettler which walks backwards to confuse trackers a Desert Vamooser, a dry-land catfish that swims tail-first through the dust a Spotted Compass Cat a flock of Galoopus Birds, which lay square eggs that won't roll down hills a Spitback Giascutus, that can catch bullets and spit them back at the shooter Despite a meddling hunter trying to bag the Teakettler, the McBrooms of course find success with their menagerie, and all is well -- though ol' Josh is still hoping to find the most elusive of all rare beasties, the Great Seventeen-Toed Hairy Hidebehind, so shy that it always managed to jump behind you or something else no matter how hard you look for it. Will he find it? You'll have to check it out, and check out some of the other McBroom books while you're at it and indulge your inner spinner of tales tall and true.

I loved the McBroom books as a kid, which is why I got them for my own child. These fun stories, told in first person for added effect, carry the elements that has made American tall tales a unique literary genre (i.e., a mundane setting made extraordinary, the wild exaggerations told in all seriousness, vague references to others who can substantiate the story). This McBroom book was my favorite, because it describes some classic animals from American "whoppers." My highest reccomendations overall.