Wild About Books (2004)

With a rollicking rhyme - "It started the summer of 2002, / When the Springfield librarian, Molly McGrew, / by mistake drove her bookmobile into the zoo." - and exuberantly entertaining illustrations, Wild About Books is one picture-book that just begs to be read aloud! Slowly seduced by the power of story, and by the charms of storyteller Molly McGrew, the animal residents of the Springfield zoo eventually find themselves both bibliophiles and budding authors, a process which culminates in the construction of their very own "zoobrary."

Dedicated to the incomparable Dr. Seuss, and in much the same vein, this appealing title would make an excellent story-hour selection. I enjoyed the sing-song style of the text, which moves along at a nice clip, and boasts a rhyming scheme that reads very well, and never feels forced, and found the artwork by Marc Brown (creator of the Arthur books) quite appealing. Humorous and heartwarming, this is a book I would recommend to young bibliophiles and animal lovers, as well as to anyone looking for good children's stories for story-hour or bedtime reading. ( )

A bookmobile comes to the zoo, and the animals check out the books.

This was a wonderful book! I read it to both of my sons when they were little and they enjoyed it immensely. Both wanted it read over and over. The rhymes were done well, and not at all forced, and the story was very imaginative.

My oldest used to yell out from his bed "A mink and a moose!"

This will be a book that we keep in our house long after the boys are grown. ( )

This is one of my favorite books and I already own it for my bookshelf in my future classroom. I absolutely love the pictures! Marc Brown is an amazing illustrator. Also, the book rhymes and informs kids about reading. The characters in the book are all zoo animals so it makes the plot interesting and humorous at the same time. The animals are learning to read because the public library shows up at the zoo they are in. They read famous books such as Harry Potter which anyone reading can relate to. I loved how it seems to motivate children to read books. This is a book about learning to love books! What could be better? Highly recommend this book for future teachers such as myself. ( )

I love rhyming books especially when they involve animals and this book offers both. Wild About Books is about a group of animals that fall in love with reading. ( )

The fact that it has my name in it biases me a little, but I really enjoyed this book. The rhymes are clever and the story even more-so. I read this to my mother's fourth graders and they enjoyed it (especially the otters reading Harry Potter). ( )