What If Dad Gets Lost at the Zoo?

William Blackburn is a professor of English at the University of
Calgary.

Like the authors’ first book, What If the Bus Doesn’t Come?, this
story examines one of the common fears of childhood. When their father
offers to take them to the zoo, Carol and Paul find themselves wondering
what they would do if their father got lost. Their vivid
imaginations—marvelously reflected in Langevin’s splendid
illustrations—conjure up various menacing landscapes in which their
father gets lost, only to be traced by his resourceful offspring.
Finally, however, reality intrudes: if Dad is lost, then they must be
lost as well. Their cries of alarm bring their father on the run, and
the reassured children happily accompany him to the zoo.

The story’s message is a simple one—children do have the resources
to deal with alarming situations, and parents do not readily desert
their children—but will be no less welcome to young readers on that
account. The story is told with a commendable lightness of touch, and
Langevin’s artwork provides a wonderful complement to a sensitive and
insightful tale.