So Lions Do Have Big Cat Flaps (Dear Zoo)

Name: jillmurphy

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Product:	Dear Zoo
Date:	22.07.01 (234 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: What my children say.

Disadvantages: What I say.

It's been a while since I wrote about a picture book. I shouldn't have left it so long. I suppose it's because Conor and Kieran are bigger now, and we don't read them so often. Sigh. Cue nostalgia. I love picture books, I think I'll have to find someone with a toddler that I can steal for an hour or two every once in a while so I've an excuse to keep reading them. Anyway, actually we did read one just last night, one of our favourites. Conor and Kieran should have been sleeping, it was late but it was a rather stuffy night and I could hear whispering from the stairs.

"What's the matter? Why aren't you asleep?"

"We just wanted to tell you something."

I laughed to myself, because I doubted they really had anything to tell me, and waited for the good long pause while they tried to think of something that sounded important enough for them to be out of bed at ten o'clock.

"We found this."

Hmm.. I thought, that was even less inventive than usual. I wasn't really believing them yet, I thought I'd go out into the hallway to find them holding out a broken piece of an Action Man, or something free from a cereal packet, or a solitary piece of jigsaw as if it were a thing of great and immediate significance. Naughty, doubting Jill. They were for real.

"We didn't know it was at Nanny's house, we thought you'd given it to Marnie or Ellie."

They'd found Dear Zoo, we must have left it at my mother's ages ago, when they still wanted picture books at bedtime and when this was one of our favourites. And they'd suddenly remembered how they used to enjoy it and they wanted to enjoy it again. And I was rather glad of that, so I retrieved their quilts from upstairs, made the three of us all comfortable under them on the sofa and started to read...

"'I wrote to the zoo to send me a pet. They sent me
an...'"

And just as they always used to, the conversations started.

"What would you ask the zoo to send you?"

"A dinosaur!"

"Don't be silly, they're all dead."

"Oh. Oh yeah. A gibbon then."

"A gibbon?"

"They make those whooping noises. I like gibbons."

"A panda."

"A velociraptor!"

"No, that's a dinosaur. I told you, they're all dead. A meteor came."

"Oh. Oh yeah. Major!"

"He's dead as well. Nanny told you that. You'll have to have Lizzie, that's the only lion they've got left." [Newquay Zoo reference, sorry!]

"Hurry up Mummy."

"'Elephant! He was too big. I sent him back.'"

"How many is an elephant then?"

"Nearly as big as this house."

"Is that seventeen?"

"No, more than that."

"Hurry up Mummy."

"'So they sent me a...'"

"Giraffe! Yay!"

"His head won't fit in the box, look."

"What does the ticket say?"

"It says FROM THE ZOO. I can read that."

"We get letters from Newquay Zoo, don't we?"

"Hurry up Mummy."

"'And they sent me a... '"

"Camel! Yay!"

And half an hour later we were still there, reading and talking, which is rather amazing really, because Dear Zoo contains barely enough words to pass muster in a dooyoo review - around a hundred. And yet this book has spawned countless such reading and talking sessions over a period of years, millennia actually, if you're talking child timescales. And I'll never tire of them, not ever.

Dear Zoo is one of those "
lift the flap books". In case you hadn't guessed, it's about a letter to the zoo from a child who wants a pet. They send various different animals, all of which prove unsuitable for one reason or another the elephant is too big, the lion too fierce, the giraffe too tall, the monkey too naughty. Finally, the zoo send a puppy: "He was perfect! I kept him." And simple as they sound those last few words never fail to bring childish, happy, satisfied smiles.

Each flap, in the shape of a crate, or a basket, or a box with breathing holes, conceals one of the animals and a little part of the animal is visible before the flap is lifted to allow guessing. The littlest toddlers find them endlessly funny. Years ago, when Conor was tiny and Dear Zoo was new, he always laughed at the bright, quirky, simple little pictures and was always surprised to see which animal lay beneath. Looking back I realise that he was cleverer than that, even before he could walk and talk, he just liked the game he was drawn into by this happy little book. And way back then, and it does seem already like way back then, he liked to listen to the simple words with their equally simple, but effective rhythm and their gentle repetition.

Because it's so simple Dear Zoo is super as one of the first books you might like to read to your baby. The pages are clean and uncluttered and it's easy for them to focus and concentrate on the few words and the direct illustrations that have detail but not too much - the monkey is eating a banana, the lion's crate has a danger sign on it - enough to talk about not not enough to confuse. But because it's one of those simple, but perfect ideas, Dear Zoo is super for much, much longer than that. Reading it over the years (well, all four of them but that?s a long time for a children's book to last, honestly), we've had conversations about what characteristics different animals have, about what noises they make
, what they like to eat, about why some animals live in zoos and some in houses as pets, about how different animals need to be looked after differently, about writing letters to people, about what presents they'd like for themselves, about how to choose presents for others, and about oh, so many other things.

Dear Zoo is a bestseller, it's incredibly popular, but deservedly so. If you've children you've probably not missed it, in one or other of its many variations you probably have it already sitting on your shelves, well thumbed. It's probably got some jam stains on it and many sticky tape patches and mends, or something similar, like our copy has. But you never know, you might not know about it, or you might want to think of present for a little one of your acquaintance, or you might want some ideas for your baby-to-be, or something. Put this one on your list. It's the best sort of picture book you can buy; beautifully simple, beautifully cosy, beautifully amusing but with a lot more to talk about than the words in its few pages. And it'll seem fresh for a long, long time. Honest.

"'He was perfect! I kept him.' Right then, time for bed."

"We got kittens didn?t we? Not a puppy."

"Yes."

"Will we still get a puppy one day?"

"I expect so."

"Are you going to give Dear Zoo to Marnie or Ellie?"

"No, not Dear Zoo. Some of the other ones, but not Dear Zoo."

"Ok."

"Night night."

?Night night.?

?Night night.?

And I hope my children explained it better than I. Night night.

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