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Zoo Books for Animal Lovers

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zoo books

We love the zoo. In fact, my husband and I had a zoo pass before we even had kids. I remember going to look at the animals and noticing that we were the only non-parents present.

Now I can use my kids as an excuse to go look at the animals. 😉

Not only do we love visiting the zoo, we love reading zoo books and books about our favorite animals. I recently encountered Bruno Munari’s Zoo at my library, which inspired this post.


Bruno Munari’s Zoo by Bruno Munari–I love the way the author cuts to the chase with one or two pithy sentences about each animal. Some are funny ideas. Some are interesting observations. Each one makes you want to linger on that page.

Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear? by Bill Martin Jr. (illustrated by Eric Carle)–This, and the other books in this series, are wonderful for preschoolers. They are bound to learn some new animal names as well. My toddler loves this version where she can touch a button to hear the animal sounds.


Feed the Animals by H.A. Rey–This is another classic lift-the-flap for preschooler by the author of Curious George. Your child will enjoy guess which animal will eat what kind of food in this rhyming story. Although some of the food choices seem odd (bread for the bears?), my kids have all enjoyed this book.

Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell–This lift-the-flap book is a classic. It’s a must for toddlers. They will love seeing each pet sent by the zoo until the perfect one is found.


The Animal Book: A Collection of the Fastest, Fiercest, Toughest, Cleverest, Shyest—and Most Surprising—Animals on Earth by Steve Jenkins–This book is beautifully illustrated and layed out. There is only a short blurb on each creature, so it’s not hard to get through this whole book. If you are a Christian parent, you will want to be aware of the section on evolution near the end of this book. To me, this is just an opportunity to talk about what we believe.

This isn’t a zoo book, but it’s a fun resource I came across: Printable Zoo Scavenger Hunt from The Resourceful Mama.

I hope you are inspired to read with your child and go explore the zoo together!

What are your child’s favorite animal or zoo books?

10 Comments

    • Carolyn
      Carolyn on May 6, 2015 at 11:36 am

      Yes! That’s another fun one for little ones. 🙂

  2. Leah Courtney
    Leah Courtney on May 6, 2015 at 8:46 pm

    I like Polar Bear Polar Bear as well as the original Brown Bear Brown Bear. 🙂

    Thank you for linking up with Read Aloud Wednesdays. 🙂

    • Carolyn
      Carolyn on May 6, 2015 at 10:48 pm

      Thanks! I appreciate the chance to link up with other book-minded moms! 🙂

  3. Naila Moon-hostess from #KLBH
    Naila Moon-hostess from #KLBH on May 7, 2015 at 10:27 pm

    I love the zoo too. You gave some great recommendations here. I have a few of these already! 🙂

    • Carolyn
      Carolyn on May 8, 2015 at 4:09 pm

      Horray for the zoo! Thanks for stopping by! 🙂

  4. Kim
    Kim on May 13, 2015 at 6:50 pm

    We love these as well as Goodnight Gorilla and Curious George Visits the Zoo.

    • Carolyn
      Carolyn on May 13, 2015 at 9:20 pm

      Yes, we’ve enjoyed those as well! 🙂 Thanks for your great resourse! 🙂

  5. Kim
    Kim on May 19, 2015 at 9:05 am

    Carolyn thank you so much for including a link to my zoo scavenger hunt. I was just searching through my comments so I could respond to the comment you left on my blog and I could not find it. I’m sure it is there and I am just missing it. I will add a link to this post to my zoo post.

    • Carolyn
      Carolyn on May 19, 2015 at 9:10 am

      Thanks, Kim! I thought your scavenger hunt was such a great resource, I just had to include it! 🙂 And I’m including a link to your summer bingo in next week’s post! Thanks for making these fabulous printables available! 🙂

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