Author: Ben Dolnick
Questions I will be answering:
20) What lesson did you learn from the story?
30) Write a different ending to the book. Tell why you changed it.
40) Write a poem about the book.
53) Is the title a good or a poor one and why?
This book, is written in a first person perspective. The reader takes on the role of Henry Elinsky, a collenge freshman that failed his freshman year and had to take it again. This book illustrates how a teenager goes through the woes of being an adult. So, for the summer, his brother, David, offers him a job opportunity for the summer at the Central Park Zoo. Henry starts to work at the Central Park Zoo, starting out at the children's zoo. Henry stays in David's apartment and one day, when he was swimming, meets the girl of his dreams, whose brother he caused to have two chipped teeth.
He tries all methods to win over her heart, but stuns when he finds out that she already has a boyfriend, he now tries even harder with no avail. Also, Henry encounters obstacles in his job, such as workload stress and the desire to stop working there and then as working at the zoo seemed diferent to him from Animal Planet.
Finally, when Henry thinks that things would not get anymore worse, the city goes into a blackout. He goes into the zoo at night, hoping to check out the animals, but accidentally lets out Newman, a goat which children love and the main attraction at the children's zoo. Henry gets fired from the zoo, never to return as a worker or even as a visitor. Henry learns that being an adult is not as easy as earning a weekly paycheck and fulfilling his life's dreams.
Now I shall proceed with the first question: What lesson did you learn from the story?
This story is all about telling us the woes and hardships of adulthood, while many children would be jealous of the adults, thinking that an adults life is much easier than their school life. This book proves them wrong utterly. Firstly, it introduces them to the workload of adults, and the displeasures of work, after that, it introduces them to the affairs of the heart and finally, problems which risk your career and your life without a job. Finally, the book will then talk about the author in school, when life was so much easier. I learnt that being an adult is not as easy as just working and getting paid, buying stuff, using stuff and more. This book actually made me realise that being a student now is actually lucky, without having to worry about as many things as the working class do.
Now for the next part: Write a different ending to the book and why you changed it.
The original ending to the story is this: But when I keep remembering is a moment just before all that, when I was still carrying the dog across the water, alone and freezing and whispering with mud smeared over my face, and how happy I felt, how simply and suddenly happy. What a strange place for a life t start, I remember thinking, and my flashlight flickered on the water.
Now I shall proceed with my own ending: But what I keep remembering was the time way before all the police and stuff, when I had just started my second freshman year, the freedom, the spectrum of choices in which to choose for my next step. Only then, did I realise that being a working adult was tough. Real tough. Thus then, I kept to my studies and passed my second freshman year. That was when, I truly felt the greatest.
Time for the next task to: Write a poem about the book.
Henry Elinsky failed his first year of college,
he wanted to try out his father's lifestyle that age.
His father wanted him to help out at the school,
but Henry refused, and worked at the zoo.
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He moved in with David,
and worked like they did.
He thought it was easy,
but it was a tough duty.
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One day at a swim,
he met the girl of his dreams.
He helped take care of her brother,
but taking care was a lot tougher.
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He tries his very best,
to win her zest.
But he found out,
he would never win the bout.
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He works at the zoo day and night,
working and working with all his might.
He got sick of it,
but did not resign.
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One day at a city blackout,
he went back to check it out.
When he reached the goats',
he let a goat out.
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For that blunder,
he got the sack.
He vouched to himself,
he would never come back.
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He finally goes back,back to the school he went.
He seems satisfied now,
after those dreadful events.
Okay, the poem is now over, and that brings us to: Is the title a good one or a bad one and why.
Personally, I think that the title is a good one. It is good because the title does not only cover Henry's job at the Central Park Zoo, but also means the ups and downs in adult life. So, the word zoology can mean both Henry working in the zoo, studying a bit of Zoology, or it can mean the wild mishaps and challenges in adulthood. Thus, I think that the title is a very good one.
And there we have it! The end of the book review. Hope you pick up a good book anytime soon.
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