~ borrowed from the Library

Andrew Bleiman's other two easy ZooBorn books are at an end-of-year First Grade reading Level. [That would be Welcome to the World, ZooBorns! and I Love You, ZooBorns! THIS BOOK has not been analyzed, but it is probably in the same range.

I'm pretty enthusiastic about this book for a few reasons, not the least of which is the delightful photos that shows mommy (and one daddy?) animals and their babies. I LOVE books like this particularly because you can use them before your children start reading.

If I still had a toddler at home I would share this book, pointing out and naming the animals, their colors and designs. There are pink flamingos inside and also: zebras, tamanduas (a type of anteater), marmots, swift foxes, giraffes, rhinos, gorillas, belugas, and chimpanzees.

Each animal pair or trio gets two pages. On the first page is a paragraph in a huge font, while on the second page is something, "Hello, mommy flamigo!"

Here's a sample paragraph:

This baby white rhinoceros
weighted 100 pounds a birth.
That is a big baby!
Someday she will be as big as her mommy.

As you can see from the sample paragraph the author does toss in some factoids, which gives adults a chance to discuss ideas like weight and size.

The photos are of real zoo animals and are very appealing.