19 Feeding Time

Feeding Time written by Pam Holden illustrated by Jim Storey

One Saturday, Ana and Pablo were the two lucky children who got to work at the zoo. Their job was to help the busy Zookeeper. It was up to them to make sure that all the animals got plenty of fresh food to eat for their dinner. Ana gave the hungry monkeys some yellow bananas for their dinner. The children watched the youngest monkeys climb up high into the trees to eat the yummy bananas.

Next, Ana and Pablo went to give the seal family their dinner. When the seal family saw Pablo and the Zookeeper holding their fish, they made a lot of noise to make sure they got enough dinner. It was a lot of fun to throw the slippery fish to the seals and watch them catch the fish with their mouths.

The zebras had a nice open place to live in with enough room for them to move around. Ana and Pablo gave them some clean hay to have for their dinner. All of the zebra family came over to eat the hay, while Ana and Pablo held it out for them. Even the youngest Zebra liked eating the clean hay.

They all went to feed the elephants fresh plants and vegetables next. Elephants are big animals, so they needed plenty to eat. Even the youngest elephant could eat a full box of vegetables all by itself. The elephant family took a long time to finish all their food, but Ana and Pablo didn't mind. It was fun to watch them using their long trunks to eat their dinner.

The parrots were very loud and very happy when they saw the children coming to give them their dinner. The Zookeeper stayed still and put his arms out, and lots of noisy parrots landed on him. One parrot even sat on Ana's head! The children fed the parrots seeds and nuts out of their hands until they had eaten enough. It was very noisy.