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Michael Smither was born and raised in the small town of Danville, IN. After graduating high school, he discovered his love for working with children. He is currently in his sixth year working with the special education class in the Danville School corporation. His passion for children is what inspired him to write this book.
Reviewed by Jessyca Garcia for Readers' Favorite
My daughter and I loved Backward Zoo by Michael Wesley Smither. The story is about a little boy named Bunky who hates to try new things. Bunky’s Grandma decides to take him to the zoo. When they get there, they realize that this is no ordinary zoo. All the animals are behaving differently than normal.
As soon as I saw that Backward Zoo was about a child who did not like to try new things, I knew I needed to read it to my child. My 5-year-old is just like Bunky and hates to try anything new. I am glad that I read this book with her. My daughter was laughing at the monkeys leaping like frogs and the bears walking like penguins. Her only complaint was that there were no flamingos in the story.
Not only is the book funny, but it puts the idea into kids’ minds that doing something different might just be fun. I loved the illustrations. They look professionally drawn and are very colorful. The wording was a little difficult for my child to read by herself, but this book is meant to be read by an adult to a kid. It is a lot more enjoyable that way! My daughter’s other favorite thing, besides the backward animals, was all the sounds that I was forced to make while reading to her.
Smither did a great job. This was a good book! It is not often that I can get my child to pay attention through the whole story and laugh at every turn of the page. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has kids. It will be a great read for preschoolers.
