I went to the animal fair, the birds and the beasts were there... (Dear Zoo: Lift the Flaps - Rod Campbell)

Member Name: Diane3

Product:	Dear Zoo: Lift the Flaps - Rod Campbell
Date:	08/12/09 (86 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: The children love it

Disadvantages: none

I bought Dear Zoo for my youngest son who will be one year old in two weeks. It was in his Christmas calendar. I decided not to buy them the chocolate filled version but I made them my own calendar filled with little cars, books and occasionally chocolate.


So on the seventh day Peter got Rod Campbell's Dear Zoo. This book is almost 28 years old, the first edition was published in 1982. We read the book while my kids were having breakfast and both of them enjoyed it.


About the author
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The author of this book is Rod Campbell who is a Scottish writer and illustrator. He specialised in children's books and besides Dear Zoo he wrote Dear Santa, ABC Zoo, Noisy Farm, Farm 123, The Pop-up Farm, The Pop-up Jungle, etc. He was born in 1945 and was brought up in Zimbabwe. After he returned to Britain he completed a doctorate in organic chemistry.



About Dear Zoo
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I suppose you buy the book for a child, so if I write here the text of it I won't spoil your experiences about the book.

First page:
I wrote to the zoo to send me a pet. They sent me an... On the other side there is a big yellow box with a label on it saying Very Heavy! The box can be lifted and you see an elephant behind the box. The text says: He was too big! I sent him back.

Second page:
So they sent me a... On the next page there is a tall green box and a giraffe is looking out at the top of it. There are two labels on the box: From the Zoo says the first and Fragile says the other. If you lift the flap you can see the giraffe. The text below the box says: He was too tall! I sent him back.

From now on the text on the left side is repetitively: So they sent me a... Then there is a lion that is too fierce, a camel that is too grumpy, a snake that was too scary, a monkey that was too naughty, a frog that was too jumpy.

Finally on the left it is said: So they thought very hard, and sent me a... on the left there is a basket, and below it there is a dog. He was perfect! I kept him.


My opinion
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I bought this book on Amazon for about 3 pounds. It was on offer. Actually I bought a lot of copies and gave them to my children's friends and I heard that all of them love this book. I think it is a great book which helps the children to learn a lot of animals and one characteristic thing about them. I see that the two sons of mine look and use the book differently. My elder son already knows these animals, he recognised all of them. He is 2.5 years old. He observed the labels on the box, the shape of the box and was interested how this book was made so that the flops can be lifted. The younger one is interested in the picture and he enjoys lifting the flops of the book. Unfortunately he tastes the book several times a day so I have to take care of it not to eat it before he learns these animals. Lol

Thanks for the reading!

Summary: Great way to teach them a few animals.