Three children’s books about animals

I’ve mentioned Eliza’s favourite book The Tiger who came to tea before, but books about animals encompass two of Eliza’s current favourite things (here are five others). This is a selection of ones we’ve been reading recently:

Dear Zoo spin and say – by Rod Campbell (£9.99). This is an interactive board book based on the classic children’s Dear Zoo. Each page of the book is divided into different animal-themed sections along with a simple question. The idea is that your child uses the spinner on each page and answers the question wherever the arrow points “How many animals?” “Five grumpy camels” or “What is this animal?” “It’s a Leopard!” for example.

It’s a simple but clever idea and encompasses concepts, guessing, counting, categorising, identifying, naming, numbers and colours – all the educational things that super-keen mums love – but in a fun, baby-friendly format. At 18 months I think we’re still too young to really appreciate the spinner, but it’s fun to point to the animals and ask simple questions. Rod Campbell’s board book Oh Dear is a firm favourite in this house – Eliza refers to it as the ‘uh-oh’ book – so it’s a familiar cheeky and playful style.

The spinners seem quite sturdy, but I wouldn’t want to put any bets on how long they will last under the care of my nimble-fingered toddler. Brilliant book though, and one that she’ll really grow into as it’s suitable for pre-school children from 1+.

Zoe and Beans ‘How many pets?’ by Mick Inkpen & Chloe Inkpen (£5.99). This book follows two characters as they count their different creatures. So there’s numbers, counting and lots of animals (it ends with a massive pet pile-in on the final page).

The pictures are really delicate and subtle, and the rhythm of the words is just lovely. Thanks to Peppa – who else? – Eliza loves peeeeeegs, and there are several of them in the book at various points, so she has great fun pointing them out.

It was a new series to this house, but we’ll definitely be looking for the other books. Also, how brilliant a name for an author is Inkpen?

This Little Piggy finger puppet book  (£3.99) Honourable mention for this, another peeeeeg focused book. It’s a very cute mini board book that tells the classic nursery rhyme with the aid of the furry pink finger puppet.

We were sent Dear Zoo and Zoe and Beans to review by Pan Macmillan. The Three Little Pigs book was part of a prize I won at Britmums Live from Paragon Books. Thanks both!