The premise will draw in the animal lovers in the audience since main character, Whit, lives at the zoo with his parents who work there. Since he is also homeschooled by a private teacher, he lacks friends his own age. He also feels that his parents consider the needs of the zoo to be more important than his. He makes friends with a girl who comes to the zoo each day to draw, but actually she is avoiding her home life. The back stories of the various characters did not completely convince, and there may have been situations written into the story that were not useful. I really enjoyed Irene Latham's DON'T FEED THE BOY. Whit, the mc, pulls you into his zoo and teaches you about what it is like to live there. He even sprinkles in animal facts without sounding preachy. He hates his zoo home or at least thinks he does and feels the need to escape but what he really needs is a friend - a human one who understands the need to leave your surroundings and experience someone else's life every once in a while. He finds that person in Stella - who has quite a few issues of her own to deal with. Cute story. I highly recommend it to readers of mid grade novels - both boys and girls will enjoy this story.
Cute story. Very sweet. Started a bit slow, but liked the story much better as it went on.
—Miafrate
Definitely not appropriate for an 8-year-old boy, but he did enjoy it. Heavy topic.
—naledi
Loved the ending. Learned a lot about the zoo too!
—Keziah
I loved it I think it is my favorite book
—Candi
quick read;great story
—0434960731
