Z is for Zoo (ABC) Board book – January 6, 2009

I ordered this along with the other two books in the series since it was a bargain book. Based on the other reviews, I wasn't expecting too much from this one. To my surprise, both my 10 month old and I really enjoy it! I think it's almost as good as F is for Farm and quite a bit better than B is for Bear.Pros:1) Has a good variety of animals, including some we don't have in any of our other animal or ABC books. The animals are: tree frog, chameleons, mama and baby penguins, camel, rhino, black bear, toucan, peacock, mama and baby koala, mama and baby kangaroo, cheetah, mama and baby orangutan, zebra, giraffe, tiger, leopard, lion, elephant.2) Gorgeous photos of animals. Some are on a white background and some are shown in their natural habitats. Even the pictures with no touch-and-feel patch do a good job of showing the texture of the animals' fur or skin.3)The text flows nicely and there are some good rhymes and vocabulary words: together/weather and river/quiver, for example.4) The layout of the book and juxtaposition of the animals provides a lot to talk about: comparisons among different types of birds and different types of large cats, which parts of the world certain animals live in, different ways mama animals carry their young, etc...5) the fold out lift-the-flaps(peacock, giraffe and elephant)are fun and illustrate the large size of some animals. My son loves playing peek-a-boo with the peacock!Cons:1)Could have more and better touch-and-feel textures. There isn't one on every page and there are some definite missed opportunities. Also, some of the included textures are not very realistic. The orangutan's belly, for example, looks like orange muppet fur.2) The spinning eyes on the chameleons are not very exciting and the tab that makes them move is hard to push. My son just wants to rip up the book trying to mess with the flap. He doesn't even seem to notice the chameleons' eyes.3) The pages could be sturdier. Not only is the paper around the tab on the chameleon page already coming apart after two readings, but the crease on the fold-out peacock page is already showing wear. I don't expect the fold-out pages or the chameleon eyes to last too long.In conclusion, this is another nice Roger Priddy book and probably one of the nicest picture books about animals I have seen, just don't expect too much in the way of touchable textures.

My son loves it so much that I have two copies. He completely destroyed both. 😜His favorite page and the one he rips apart first is the peacock. Got his first copy when he was seven months and the second one year.

I bought _Z Is for Zoo_ for my nine-month-old son, thinking he would get a kick out of the pictures. Not only does he enjoy having it read to him, he prefers it to his other books and gets very excited when I pull it out of the stack. The photographs of the animals are big, bright, and clear, and the twenty-two pages hold an diverse selection of exotic animals, my son's favorites being the black bear, the giraffe, and the elephant. The text is written with short sentences in end-rhyme verse, which helps children pick up on the rhythm of language, and I like the variety of vocabulary, such as "Leopard has spots and whiskers that quiver." The highlight of this children's book is the interactive pages, such as the chameleons' moving eyes, the fuzzy fur on the black bear and the orangutan (for baby's tactile enjoyment), and the foldout pictures of the peacock, giraffe, and elephant, which enages baby's spatial skills (page turning and folding out in multiple directions) and supports symbol recognition, as there is a small green circle at the corner of these pages that tells in which direction to open the fold. The elephant photo opens up to four times the size of a page, which makes quite an impression. Just as important for children, this book is solidly built with thick pages and robust, spongy covers, but my son has still managed to bend the front cover, leaving a crease, and chew the corners. This only serves to lend character to a book that is already abundant with charm. Much like the other books in the Priddy Books Touch and Feel series, I recommend _Z Is for Zoo_ for anyone with a child in the infant-to-preschool age group. I further recommend purchasing a new copy of these books, as the used ones, even those described as "very good," can be well-loved and have subsequent damage that the seller might overlook, which I discovered to my dismay.

I got this book for my 11 month old because she LOVES Touch and Feel books. She had the book for 10 minutes and took one of the chameleons eye off the first page. It was a page where you push a tab and the eyes move. I tried to glue the eye back on but she took it off again and I couldn't fix it the second time. Still a great book but I don't recommend for little ones who like to touch and pull on everything.

We love B is for Bear in our house by the same author, and were hoping this book would be of the same class. It's not. It just doesn't have the same amount/quality of touch n feel pages. (Sorry, but I don't count a shiny portion of a page with barely any extra texture as "touch and feel.")

We have F is for Farm, and it has more fun things to touch and feel in it than Z is for Zoo does. Otherwise, cute book.

Both our sons love reading and playing with this book... It really is geared to their ages (1 and 3)...

This is an awesome book. It's interactive and engaging. My 15 month old loves it.