A Children's Zoo

by Tana Hoban

Come to the zoo with Tana Hoban! Look at the animals. What are they? What are they like? The youngest visitor to this zoo can identify the creatures and describe them -- starting with Tana Hoban's words and adding to them. And, for those who want it, there is a glossary that includes where each animal lives and what it eats. Tana Hoban's stunning photographs will captivate young naturalists everywhere.

Genres: Picture Books, Animals, Storytime, Childrens, Nonfiction

24 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1985

Reviews

[Emily Uebel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great picture book for kids between 4-8 years old. I really did like this book considering it is for young kids. I am giving this book five stars because I think it is a great way to teach children the characteristics of animals they will find at the zoo. Also the last page of the book has a chart which I really enjoyed; the chart includes where each animal comes from, where they live, and what they eat. This is a great book to read if you are about to take your class to the zoo! On the back of the book there is a quote from The Horn Book that states “The celebrated photographer works with the ultimate in appealing subjects for very young children”. Having this stated on the back is great! And I think pictures are very important as children start to read because it makes them more engaged in the book and will encourage them to read. The language used in this book is a great read for kids and the book could also be used as game by having the class read the description of the animal and covering up the picture, and then having the students guess what animal is being described.

[jacky · Rating 2 out of 5]

The animal pictures in this book were pretty good, though not excellent. The sea lion picture was the worst one because it was hard to see the full body. I didn't like the text all that much. Each page described the animal in three words, but some words were repeated often. I thought more unique words could be used instead of using the same ones. At first I thought it was because it was trying to reinforce the same words, but then other pages would have better word choice. For example, the color words were used multiple times. For example, parrot was described with red and blue instead of something more interesting like feathered, meanwhile the description for elephant and giraffe used more descriptive words like wrinkled and silent.

[Vivian · Rating 3 out of 5]

My story time crowd got a participation song performance from me.
I turned to the first page which pictures a PENGUIN. I pointed to the penguin and sang, "There was an animal at the zoo and Penguin was its name-oh!" Then I clapped and sang, "PE-NG-UI-N! PE-NG-UI-N! PE-NG-UI-N! and Penguin was it's name-oh!"

Next is a HIPPO -- same thing.

Next is a ZEBRA -- same thing.

Next came a Polar Bear, a Sea Lion, a Lion, a Parrot, and an Elephant. We didn't sing and clap these.

Next is a PANDA -- we sang and clapped this one.

Last is a GIRAFFE -- we did the same as we did with the Penguin -- "GI-RA-FF-E!" etc.

SO FUN!

[Natalie · Rating 4 out of 5]

this is a good book with pictures the reader would see at a zoo. accompanied with 3 adjectives about the animal in the picture. these pictures let the reader come up with their own ideas and questions about the animal pictured.

[Siskiyou-Suzy · Rating 1 out of 5]

A little book with so-so artwork of zoo animals and three words to describe each one, then the name of the animal at the bottom. I played a sort of guessing game with the kids, but of course it was very easy. Simply concept, but the execution was rather boring.

[Sarah Kramer · Rating 3 out of 5]

You can use this book as riddles, by reading the descriptions, having the children guess the animal, and then revealing the photograph of the animal.

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

This a really simple book that centers on photographs of animals with three descriptive words and the name of the animal in large type on each page. Morgan has enjoyed it.

[Christine Turner · Rating 3 out of 5]

PLN Theme: Raise a Reader

Color photographs of animals are accompanied by several descriptive words, e.g. tall, spotted, silent giraffe. www.hcpl.net

[Kathy Pollock · Rating 4 out of 5]

I use this book to infer with my kindergarten students. It is great to use with this strategy because the clues to infer which animal are just right for this age group.

[Jess · Rating 3 out of 5]

Each two page spread has a photo plus three clues about the animal. Some clues are better than others, but it's fun.

Dated, but usable.

[Tasasha Battle]

This book is about zoo animals. Each animal is described and expressed what they eat. This book can be used to explain adjectives and descriptive writing.

[Kristina · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one has potential but it didn't work well at Toddler Tadpoles so I scrapped it.

[Courtney Stevens · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book! Very simple text and pictures. This would be amazingly fun to use as a guessing game for children! Picture book.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good story to convert to a puppet or flannel story for the littles.

[TCNS]

2 copies available. One filed under "Hoban" and one filed under "Animals."

[☼Bookish in Virginia☼ · Rating 2 out of 5]

Time Machine
3.0 out of 5 stars A Good Book For Very Young Children, May 23, 2005

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.