A few months ago, the wonderful children's modern classic 'Dear Zoo' by Rod Campbell celebrated its 30th anniversary. I am of the age group that would have only just missed this enchanting book when it was first published, however it very firmly sits in my Listography of Top 5 Children's Books and I defy any parent of a toddler to resist it. As it has sold over five million copies in the past thirty years, I'm pretty sure not many parents do resist it!
There are a number of different variants of the classic book in the 'Dear Zoo' range, including an Animal Shapes 'buggy' book, a Little Library, a pop-up version, a Noisy Book and even an iPad app, but I want to share two new additions:
Dear Zoo Touch and Feel
This is a brilliant version of the book for the younger child who is still discovering the world through touch. With a range of different textures throughout, the materials definitely help to make it more of a sensory book to explore. (RRP £7.99)
The Dear Zoo Activity Book
This activity book (priced at £3.99) has a huge range of activities which I feel are best suited to children aged four years and over. The activities encourage fine motor skill development through dot-dot and follow the line, and for the younger reader there are sticker activities. However quite a lot of the activities involve some degree of reading or writing which children younger than four are almost certainly not capable of. For someone who has treasured the book then this won't daunt them.
I was sent these products for the purpose of this review. My opinion is honest and unbiased.
I use to love this book I really need to buy it for Thomas
I need to buy the Dear Zoo books – we have the jigsaw and Z loves that!
I used to have that book when I was a child and my 2 girls have both had a copy of it….Think we still actually have it on the bookshelf! Is a great book 🙂