All in all, I think Dear Zoo is a really lovely book, and I can see Cupar being interested in it for a good few years yet. The writing flows and has an element of surprise to it which children will love. It’s a perfect book for reading out loud together, and unlike some books, it doesn’t get boring after a few days. With a final image of birds flying free above the cages, this is a good book for discussion on human behaviour and for raising questions such as: Do animals feel? How should we be treating them and should they be caged? Who is more civilised, the humans or the animals? When I "read" it, I had a box marked "From the Zoo" (as if the kids could read it) and I would just say the same line over and over again:

I wrote to the zoo to send me a pet..." (That's a direct quote from the book) and then I'd pull out a different puppet from the box and bring it to life for a few seconds. It was fun to have the parents and talking kids chant the line over and over with me. And it was even more fun to see the children's excitement when a "live" animal came out of the box. Priceless.This picture book often makes the Banned and Challenged book list each year. It’s based on a true zoo story: From board books to fiction, take a look at these fantastic zoo books for kids! Perfect for learning about animals and a visit to the zoo. A favorite in our house when the kids were younger was the (almost) wordless picture book Good Night, Gorilla by Peggy Rathman.

It has very good illustrations which complement the story nicely, adding to the sense of humor within. The front cover isn’t particularly bright but the wavy lines, bold simple title and family picture still make it look intriguing and hint at the slightly unusual story within.

Ann of Doodles and Jots has some great recommendations: Zoo-ology, ZooZical, My Heart is Like a Zoo, and Color Zoo. Zoo-ology by Joelle Jolivet I would actually argue that this is one of the most dystopian picturebooks I have ever read and it's unsettling. We are big fans of Little Critter books — the kids find them very funny. Kids will love My Trip to the Zoosince it’s all about animal noises 🙂 A memorable quote of the book is ‘Everyone laughed except Mum and Harry and me’ which does a great job describing the only person to laugh was Dad.

But when she is forced into hiding for a thorough zoo cleaning, everyone realizes how important spiders are to the zoo ecosystem. I love this message because my kids are afraid of spiders and this picture book helps us to appreciate them. [picture book, ages 2 and up] Something I do admire is it's comment on consumerism. It's décor resembling a bar-code and it being a commercial item. I think that that is one thing that it truly embodies and imbibes throughout. First, it’s a large (over-sized) book which allows the illustrations to be examined more carefully. Second, it allows kids to explore animals from around the world as they are shared in different ways, such as ‘at night’ and ‘underground’. Adults and older kids will enjoy all the fun animal facts shared in the appendix. Wonderful for kids ages 3 – 9 years. His friendship with Stella (aka Bird Girl) deepens and he learns of her troubled home and wants to help but is she asking too much of him? [chapter book, ages 9 and up] I doubt 22-month old little-AJ is thinking much about any of the above issues, but he thoroughly enjoys this book and has requested this to be read and re-read many times.The kids fought, more interested in lunch and souvenirs than the animals, found their daddy embarrassing, and didn't bother to laugh at the daddy's attempted jokes. The family's dynamic feels troubling, but so blatantly true at the same time. The ending makes us pause and think about the relationship between animals and human beings, and the ethical questions surrounding a zoo environment. This story is a fun introduction to animals and their characteristics. It is written in the first person, with repetitive sentences. The nature of repetitiveness enables young readers to predict and engage with the story. Regardless. Is it a bit hypocritical of me to be endorsing this book, based on my ethical beliefs that animals are not toys to be swapped, sold on, imprisoned or treated as inanimate objects, blah, blah, blah. Am I delivering a dark, subconscious message of irresponsibility to my child when I read her this?