If I Ran the Zoo Youth Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Stanza.Line)

Quote #1

"But if I ran the zoo," / Said young Gerald McGrew, "I'd make a few changes. / That's just what I'd do…" (2.1-4)

Young children often pretend they take the jobs of adults and make them their own. That's a given. But did McGrew need to takes the zookeeper's clothes as well? Seems a bit mean.

Quote #2

The lions and tigers and that kind of stuff / They have up here now are not quite good enough. / You see things like these in just any old zoo. (3.1-3)

Only in a child's imagination would owning a lion or tiger be ho-hum. At Shmoop, we don't even know what we'd do with a tiger in the office.

Quote #3

I'll catch'em in crannies, I'll catch'em in nooks / That you don't read about in geography books. (11.2-3)

We can't tell with McGrew here. Is it that the geography books don't have enough places for him to learn about, or is this a convenient excuse to skip geography class? Hmm…