Customer Reviews

A Children's Zoo

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I came to this page (Amazon reviews for the book A Children's Zoo) after puzzling over why this book was on my entering kindergartners summer reading list. It is a nicely photographed book but not one I would think appropriate for anyone over 3 years of age. Certainly my boy and girl, newly 3 and 5 respectively, were uninteresting in it.

Perhaps this is because they are already familiar with these animals (kodiak bear, penguin, hippo, zebra, polar bear, sea lion, lion, parrot, elephant, panda, and giraffe) and found nothing new about the presentation. [Hippo in water. Sea Lion in water. Polar Bears on fake mountain.]

In any case, I would not suggest you buy this for anyone 4 and above: 2.5 Stars.

This book in so nice for the 3 to 4 year old range. The pictures catch their eye but at the same time they are learning about language. My 3 year old autistic son enjoys and learns from this book. What more can you ask?

A Children's Zoo is an excellent book for any preschool classroom. Tana Hoban provides fantastic large photographs of individual zoo animals on each double page. Next to each picture she uses large print to list adjectives describing each animal. The large print supports early literacy skills as well as providing cues to focus readers when looking at the animal photographs. This is one of my favorites!

Tana Hoban is known for simple but factual books for children with great photographs. I will use this book with Kindergarten students.