In the Wild

by

David Elliott

Illustrated by

Holly Meade

2011 Notable Children’s Book

Elliott, D. (2010). In the wild. Somerville, MA: Candlewick Press.

EXPOSITION: This book is made up of poems designed to introduce young readers to 14 different animals that live “in the wild.”  In order to hopefully achieve literary variety and capture young readers’ interest, the author wisely chooses animals that come from many different parts of the globe and have widely different characteristics.

CONFLICT:  The lion that lives on the sunny, grassy plains of Africa shares space in the book with a polar bear that swims in the frozen waters of the far north.

RISING ACTION: The swift jaguar makes a sharp contrast to the slow-moving sloth.  The rhinoceros has a horn on its nose, while the buffalo has horns on its head, but they are equally short-tempered.

CLIMAX: The big, round elephant, largest of the land animals, is juxtaposed to the tallest of the land animals, the lean giraffe.  The orangutan live amidst the tall trees of the jungle while the wolf makes his home among the tall trees of the forest. 

FALLING ACTION: The black-and-white zebra and the black-and-white panda are similar in color but different in almost every other way.

RESOLUTION: Long leaps are the same way the tiger hunts its prey and the kangaroo keeps from become prey.

WAS THIS A WELL-ILLUSTRATED BOOK?  Holly Meade’s pictures in the book would be very appealing to young readers.  Each illustration filled two full pages, making it easy to appreciate the details of each animal’s drawing.  The broad, relaxed brush strokes were very appropriate to depict these beautiful creatures that roam free “in the wild.”

PICTURE SOURCES:

bookideas.com

scrapetv.com

bigcat.com

blaine.org

bioweb.uwlax.edu