Is the Spaghetti Ready?

by Frank Edwards

Published 1 February 1998
It's feeding time at the zoo and the animals are hungry. Heading into the kitchen, they each announce to the zookeeper, "I am hungry. When can I eat?" As she fills each of their plates with a heaping mound of spaghetti, the zookeeper tells them, "Here is your food. Go to the table".

But when she joins her friends in the dining room, she is surprised to find the food untouched. Surveying the immaculately neat diners, she ask them, "Why are you not eating?" As the room explodes into mayhem, they jubilantly proclaim, "We are waiting for you. Now we can all eat together".

Bianchi's illustrations provide a clever contrast between the formality of the pre-dinner preparations and the tomato sauce storm that ensues when the animals start to eat.