A Zoo Alphabet

Children's Literature

The authors and illustrator bring plenty of knowledge and experience to this alphabet book. Roland Smith spent more than twenty years caring for exotic animals and Henry Cole was an elementary and middle-school science teacher. The book can be read on two levels. There is a short rhyming text that accompanies each letter of the alphabet. It is not great poetry, but it is often humorous. Two-thirds of most pages are filled with illustrations and the rhyme. The other third shows the letter of the alphabet in upper and lower case and is followed by several paragraphs of factual information related to the topic and scene. That text is aimed at an older reader. The book can be used to learn the alphabet, to learn about various jobs needed to keep a zoo running and the animals healthy, and to learn about the animals themselves. As always, illustrator Cole injects his own sense of humor. Among the most amusing pictures are one demonstrating the attempt to transport giraffes through a tunnel and another showing zookeepers transporting an anaconda. A good choice for classroom, library or home. 2005, Sleeping Bear/Thompson Gale, Ages 5 to 10.
—Marilyn Courtot

School Library Journal

K-Gr 4-Yet another addition to the spectrum of alphabet books available for young readers. This book, like the others in the series, offers "quick-read" rhymes based around the theme for each letter of the alphabet. For example, "Q is for Quarantine./When animals are new,/here they are kept/before entering the zoo." More detailed information and interesting facts appear in the margins for advanced readers or "keener" zoo enthusiasts. Colored-pencil-and-watercolor artwork dominates each spread, but the text is not dwarfed by it. Readers will find the simple pictures as interesting as the text. In addition to the many animal species, they will find ample human representation and descriptions of the important work that these individuals do in caring for their charges.-Corrina Austin, Locke's Public School, St. Thomas, Ontario, Canada Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.