At the Zoo

I think it's pretty clear by now that I love the zoo.  I've already mentioned that we live within a short walk of the Central Park Zoo and walk by at least once a week, often stopping in to go face-to-face with a penguin or to hang out with the sea lions.  A couple weeks in Singapore this summer with my husband helped that love grow. There, you can get really close to a lot of the animals, feeding giraffes, rhinos, and even orangutans.  They've got an amazing zoo and bird park, and the night safari is a lot of fun.  This past year my brother and sis-in-law had their first child, and I spent a lot of time telling him about different animals and the sounds they make.   I even made a song up about animals he could see in the backyard called, "What can you see when you're sitting in a tree?"  I started to think about what it would be like to bring your own baby to the zoo, at that age when they are excited and curious and the whole world is new. I wanted a mom and baby to be walking through a whole mass of animals; what we see are the animals they've seen for the very first time.  I picture this drawing hanging in a kid's room, where mothers can teach their kids about animals: Can you find the baby kangaroo? Where is the mother giraffe?

"At the Zoo" Pencil. Copyright 2011 Jessica Boehman