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Reviewed by Liz Konkel for Readers' Favorite
Snafu at the Zoo and More Zanytown Tales! by Jeff Eisenbaum is a fun and creative picture book filled with eccentric characters and chaotic situations. Welcome to Zanytown where anything can happen. Where legs get tied up in knots. Where bubbles grow so big they consume the town. Where magical buttons cause quite the snafu at the zoo. Zanytown is unlike any place you’ve ever been where characters doing ordinary things take a wacky turn. Each new character brings with them an even zanier situation which makes this book so much fun to read and children of all ages will enjoy it. The book also features twenty lemons throughout and a challenge for you to find them all.
The premise is unique, silly, and wonderfully executed, bringing to life hilarious situations. The illustrations are breathtaking and cleverly bring to life these different chaotic moments with giant bubbles, twisted legs, and wrestling crayons. Each page provides playful visuals that draw your eye all over the page with images often stacked with several components to create this feeling of chaos. This technique works well for the age level as it gives children visuals to help them understand what is happening. They hear a humorous rhyme about a kid with long legs and then see an illustration of that kid with his legs all twisted together. These are clever with bookended paper clippings that give a vintage tone to the book and hint at the different situations that occur throughout. The rhymes are reminiscent of nursery rhymes along the lines of Mother Goose. Each rhyme is short and fast-paced, upping the playfulness with each one.
Jeff Eisenbaum takes ordinary situations such as looking for keys, eating noodles, or going to the zoo, then flips them into something insane and creative. Despite being simple premises, the execution is delightful and relies on humorous phrases to keep readers' attention. This will no doubt make parents and kids alike laugh and have fun together reading it aloud. The zaniness of this unique town has a sense of wonder with hues of gold and purple to give a magical aesthetic. Snafu At The Zoo and More Zanytown Tales! is something that the whole family can enjoy with stunning illustrations, chaotic situations, and a delightful rhyme scheme.
