In Wild About You, all the animals are having babies! Except for the tree kangaroo and the pandas - who desperately want babies and even attempt asking the crocodiles if they can have theirs. A zookeeper offers up an abandoned egg and while all of the birds refuse to adopt it (saying it's too small or they don't have space), the tree kangaroo steps forward. Eventually, out hatches a penguin. The tree kangaroo is surprised but loves him completely, while acknowledging that she needs help from other animals to raise her penguin "because penguins eat fishes." And the community steps up! The penguins bring fish, the flamingos invite the penguin over for a playdate, but the bond remains between the penguin and her adoptive mother. Meanwhile, the pandas adopt a kitten they find and similarly, the tigers bring fresh milk and the meerkats set up playdates. The lesson of the book is summed up at the end: "To bring up a baby . . . IT TAKES THE WHOLE ZOO."
Obviously, there are problems with this narrative - the big two being focusing entirely on the deep desire of the parents for a child (and ignoring the child's loss and point of view) and the refusal of the other animals to adopt the egg. However, as a adoptive parent, and in particular a parent with a transracially adopted child, I really appreciated that the book celebrated adoptive animals reaching out to other animals who were better suited to help their child when it was necessary. There is a nice parallel to best practices for adoptive families, as they reach out to people of the same race of their child, as well as finding a community of other adoptive families and adopted individuals for their child to relate to.
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