When We Went to the Zoo

We're taking a little birthday zoo trip today for Charlotte's 2nd birthday (shhhh....Madeleine and Henry are skipping school). We read this book this morning to get in a zoo mood.


When We Went to the Zoo 
Jan Ormerod 1990

Years ago when Madeleine and Henry were very little I belonged to a children’s club that sent us books and crafts in the mail. It wasn’t very expensive and we received many great books that way- all hardbacks no less. Jan Ormerod is one of those illustrators that whenever I see a book by her I snatch it up.





This is a simple story of a father with his two children walking around the zoo. On each page they describe what animals they see, deciding at the end that they liked the sparrows best. The last end pages have the same picture of the zoo map as the front, but with their path drawn in. Madeleine loves this part. We’ve also gone back to find the sparrows on each page.


We sang, "Hi-de-hi-de-ho, the elephant is so slow."


And in the end we liked that best, spying the sparrows and their nest.