Rod Campbell (1) (1945–)

A reckless grandmother dispatches a clueless pre-school infant to undertake menial labour on her farm unattended. Unsurprisingly, without guidance, the child takes forever to complete the simplest tasks. Oh, dear! Grandma will regret her cavalier attitude to childcare one day.

Dear Zoo has become a classic of the children's literature canon and rightly deserves to be so. In this simple and sweet board book, the unnamed narrator notes how he/she wanted a pet and so wrote the zoo for one. The zoo responds by shipping over some animals. The first several tries are unsuccessful as the animals shipped are too big, too tall, too scary, etc. At last, the perfect pet arrives. Children from infants to toddlers to preschoolers absolutely love lifting the flap on each page show more to see what the zoo has shipped next. This is a great book for spending some quality time with the young ones in your life, allowing them to manipulate the flaps, identify animals (adding in the sound effects is always fun!), and otherwise have great fun while gaining pre-literacy skills. show less

So, a fun idea, but unfortunately, this book is dated and gender stereotyped. With books like this -- depicting all eight different animals as male -- no wonder kids go to the zoo and call every single animal "him" unless it is obviously nursing an infant. Sandra Boynton's books are a great alternative, and not so painfully and unnecessarily gendered.

So, a fun idea, but unfortunately, this book is dated and gender stereotyped. With books like this -- depicting all eight different animals as male -- no wonder kids go to the zoo and call every single animal "him" unless it is obviously nursing an infant. Sandra Boynton's books are a great alternative, and not so painfully and unnecessarily gendered.