Seuss stumbles as he dishes up some shocking verbally and visually racist commentary: 'I'll hunt in the mountains of Zomba-ma-Tant / With helpers who all wear their eyes at a slant,' or the Indian chieftains whom Gerald will display along with the 'scraggle-footed Mulligatawny,' or the African porters.

Unfortunately, some of the people Gerald sees in faraway places are presented as racist stereotypes, including 'Persian princes' wearing billowy pants and turbans two barefoot, shirtless African men with top knots and wearing large nose rings and grass skirts and three Asian men wearing tunics and wooden sandals. Though the animals are pure figments, Seuss transports readers into the adventure with Gerald McGrew as he globetrots in search of the best wild animals. Here is life lived as a fantastical experience, lit by an imagination that shimmers and bursts like fireworks. This Seuss book is a joyride of verse and ridiculous creatures that has some problematic images among the fanciful illustrations. I'll bring one back, too,' equating a person from another culture and an exotic animal. Gerald says, 'A Mulligatawny is fine for my zoo / And so is a chieftain. There are also stereotypical portrayals of Middle Eastern characters, including 'Persian princes' and a desert 'chieftain' riding a beast called a Mulligatawny. The men are carrying an exotic beast in a large cage balanced on their heads, and atop the cage is the young White narrator, Gerald, with a rifle. However, the book, which was first published in 1950, features racist and great-White-hunter stereotypes and insensitive imagery, including an illustration of two barefoot, bare-chested Africans wearing grass skirts and large nose rings, and three Asian men with long, stringy mustaches and wearing tunics and wooden sandals. Main character and narrator Gerald McGrew imagines all the fantastic beasts he'd find in his travels around the world, which he'd then put in a very different kind of zoo. Seuss' If I Ran the Zoo won a Caldecott Honor.

If i ran the zoo book