Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell

Campbell, Rod. Dear Zoo. New York: Four Winds Press, ISBN: 978-1416947370. 18 pages. Ages 1 and up. Board book. Official author website: http://www.rodcampbell.co.uk/


A boy, looking for a pet, writes to the zoo. The zoo obliges and sends potential pets, but none of the pets are quite suitable. The elephant is too big, the giraffe too tall, the lion too fierce, the frog to jumpy, and so on until the zoo finally send the perfect pet. In the ending, the boy is happy. 


This book has been very popular for 25 years. It is a great interactive lift-the-flap book. Rod Campbell uses repetition and high frequency words so young children can recognize the pattern of the book. This predictable dialogue makes this a good candidate for reading aloud. It is also good for beginning logic. For each animal, a reason why the animal is not suitable for a pet is provided. This book is usually a huge hit.