Everything Butt Art at the Zoo

Gr 2—5—Each lesson starts as a "butt"-that is, a line with a double scallop. Snyder and Moniello show readers how to turn the "butt" into drawings of 15 kinds of zoo animals. The scalloped line is used for different parts of different animals. For the gorilla, it becomes the mouth, and for the lion it is part of the mane. The book has a good variety of creatures, including birds, reptiles, and mammals. They are demonstrated with clear step-by-step drawings, with each new step printed in red. The finished pictures are simple and cartoonlike, with no attempt at shading or modeling. Each drawing is accompanied by a short, interesting, and often funny fact, printed in large type, about the featured animal. The drawing demonstrations are surrounded by brightly colored images in the same style as the projects that illustrate the animal fact. Unfortunately, there are activities that require writing in the book. Although it lacks the novel "butt" premise, Christopher Hart's Kids Draw Animals (Watson-Guptill, 2003) is probably a better choice for libraries.—Donna Cardon, Provo City Library, UT