Dear Zoo: Lift the Flaps

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For the older set (kids who are reading chapter books), we’ve also got a few suggestions for great zoo mysteries! And for some creative fun, take along the At the Zoo Scratch & Sketch (An Art Activity Book for Animal Lovers and Artists of All Ages) (Trace-Along Scratch and Sketch) . Your kids will love to observe and scratch/sketch the animals they see on their visit. But my daughter really loves this book. And my husband told me to lighten up, get off my high horse and "it's only a kids' book. Don't worry about it." So maybe the lift up flaps are great. And how lovely it would be to have a zoo keep sending you animals on demand. Yeah, ok, it's a fab book.

For kids who want to get up close with wild animals, I would recommend Life-Size Zoo: From Tiny Rodents to Gigantic Elephants, An Actual-Size Animal Encyclopedia with photography by Toyofumi Fukuda. We all know that it’s not possible to pet most of the animals at the zoo, so this book introduces younger children to what they might feel like if they were able to get up close. Fun for ages 1 – 4 years. Put Me in the Zoo was written and illustrated by Robert Lopshire. This fun book follows an animal named Spot who wants to live in the zoo. But when the zoo won’t let him stay, he shows two young kids all of the fun things that he can do with his spots. This silly rhyming story is accompanied by fun over-the-top illustrations that kids will love. Picture Books This age range for this book is 8-12 with Children younger than 8 accessing the book via the great Illustrations and older Children being able to understand the real story. Older children can understand the theme from the text but younger children may need to be shown the pictures and maybe asked, ‘what is unusual about this picture?’ 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]Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carle pair up again with this endangered animal version of Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? I think it’s never too early for kids to learn about our fragile planet; it will be they, after all, who will have to save it! [picture book, ages 1 and up]

I hope you enjoyed this list of zoo animal books. Do you have any favorite zoo books to add to our list?

My son loved, loved, loved this series. I didn’t realize that it was a three-book set, but I finally found the last one in a used book sale at our elementary school.

Zoo Zen: A Yoga Story for Kids was written by Kristen Fischer and illustrated by Susi Schaefer. This sweet yoga story follows a little girl named Lyla as she learns new yoga poses from her zoo animal friends. The illustrations are striking, and offer helpful tips for kids to try the poses. If you’re looking for some favorite book characters, here are a few enjoyable reads about zoo visits that kids will identify with as they tour the animals — The people featured in the book are dressed in animal patterned clothing, having animal-like features or in some cases they are physically a bizarre mixture of human and actual animal whilst the animals themselves are drawn in an incredibly life-like and realistic way and Browne really shows off his mastery in his gorilla illustration. This book is an excellent example of the essential role pictures can play in a story as we can infer so much from them.It's a wonderful critique of zoos and of the way that people treat animals, the way they treat each other, the way they ignore each other and the way that society is as much a zoo (cages and all) as a zoo really is. It also happens to be full of beautiful art juxtaposed with a surreal comic art... brining that dystopia straight to the eyes.