This review is for Dear Zoo: Noisy Book, which I think is the best of all the many versions and formats. It begins:

Read the book again but this time ask your child to place the right animal into their box and make it pop up as each animal appears in the book. Make this elephant craft using newspaper from Buggy and Buddy or this paper bag elephant from Crafts on Sea This story is a fun introduction to animals and their characteristics. It is written in the first person, with repetitive sentences. The nature of repetitiveness enables young readers to predict and engage with the story. Simple clauses featuring nouns (zoo)and verbs (wrote, send) e.g.'I wrote to the zoo to send me a pet' This popular book is a wonderful way to develop your child’s vocabulary, play and attention and listening skills. As each animal is initially presented through a container, this allows your child to see a glimpse of the animal and to guess what it might be, keeping their attention throughout. With simple repetitive language used throughout this book, your child will have the chance to hear the vocabulary used again and again. Here are my top Dear Zoo activities you can do with your child to help develop their speech and language skills: Activities for younger children:

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He decided the best way was to write a picture book from the perspective of someone who tries to find their favourite animals, and then discovers there aren’t many of them left. Like in Dear Zoo, which has sold over eight million copies worldwide and is a perennial top-10 picture book in the UK, an animal hides behind each flap of the book and is only revealed when the flap is opened. However the Dear Zoo: Noisy book is well nigh perfect. It includes the fun element of flaps, teaches both the names of the animals and how to identify them. It invites questions such as: “How big is the crate?” and “What sort of animal might fit inside there?” It uses language with simple repetition, but also creatively. It has clear, attractive and humorous line drawings in bold colours. Toddler Approved have a whole week of zoo learning activities, I think this animal salt painting might be my favourite as it looks so pretty! More Zoo Books

Another idea for older children is to encourage them to think of the features of each animal. This can be done using a picture based mind map. Get your child to think of adjectives and key words relating to each animal (e.g. elephant – tusk, trunk, big, desert, big, strong). Get a big piece of paper and ask your child to draw an elephant in the middle. Then ask your child to draw pictures relating to the different features around the elephant. Remember you are not looking for perfect pictures! You can help your child to think of some adjectives to describe each animal. The elephant can be described as wrinkly, wise or enormous.They could roar like a lion, ribbit like a frog and woof like a puppy. But what noise does a camel make? Adjectives which relate to each animal, e.g.'They sent me an elephant, but he was too big', They sent me a snake, but he was too scary'. Is it munch munch munch? Or you can search the internet together to find out. What words can they think of to describe each animal? Introduce the topic of ‘zoo’ and ‘zoo animals’. Discuss the animals in the book with your child. Explain that these are animals (excluding the puppy) that we find in the wild or in a zoo. Encourage you child to think of other animals they might find in the zoo/ wild.