This is the book for the overloaded junior high school or high school teacher. It is beautifully literate without being literary. It has a strong story line without being fiction. It is written with an extensive and unusual vocabulary and yet in subject matter and style is simple and direct.

Some of the following classroom exercises might be fun:

1)     Each student in the class picks one animal and compares his personality, behavior, etc., to human being – perhaps even somebody the student knows.

2)     Make a list of some common zoo animal and then, using the background information in the book, decide what you would probably feed them and how difficult they would be to catch.

3)     Write a skit dramatizing the most amusing encounter between Durrell aand one of the native collectors.