Pictures of Scotland.org Canadian Amazon Store

I guess I don't understand why the baby animals are being taken away from their famiies. All I could think of was that this is like preparing our children to separate from parents, as in, going to daycare. I don't like the emphasis on the separation. I do understand why the children are in school, obviously to get an education. To me this is a message to the children I am reading this book to: that human children should be separating from their parents and spending the day with other similarly aged children. I would have preferred to see animals in general getting on the train, or the human children getting on the train to go a normal zoo with the usual animal families. I enjoy books where the family unit is intact and where the parents are happily interacting with their children.

I also don't like that one baby animal carries a "lovey" blanket and one boy does also. I just don't like "lovey" objects as they are usually initiated by the parent as a way for the baby or young child to provide nighttime comfort and to self-soothe with (when the parent is not co-sleeping to provide the historically normal parenting comfort). Animals all sleep together (as many humans do) so I especially am bothered by that illustration of the baby animal with a "lovey".

A side note, I am not interested in the school association as I am homeschooling. Not everyone sends their children to school and not every child rides on a big yellow schoolbus! Couldn't the entire family be visiting the animals in the zoo rather than making this associated with separating the human children from their parents (even if it is to go to public school)?

The words are fun and my son does love this book. It is the underlying message that I don't agree with.


You will LOVE this book!   December 12, 2000
My 3 year old is crazy about this book! The story (tune) is easy for him to sing along with, and the pictures are adorable. They really tell the story. There is so much detail to the pictures that we can spend lots of time on each page - "do you see where the balloon went this time?" "what is the elephant doing now?". I also absolutely love it that there are very diverse children in the book - even a little girl in a wheelchair. This is now one of my regular "gift" books for all new babies, too.


My son's favorite book!   September 5, 2000
This is by far my 2 year old son's favorite book and he has lots of them. Whenever it's time to read to him he says "toot toot" and I know that means he wants to have this book read to him, sometimes several times in a row. The illustrations are wonderful, and there is all sorts of stuff going on if you look closely. An all around great, fun book, I highly recommend this book.


A Great Book to "SING" to your children!   April 29, 2000
My 2 1/2 year old LOVES this book...and so do I! It is so great to curl up with this book and spend some time singing the song (complete with wonderful animal noises) while looking at the cheery illustrations. The loving animal families as well as the children of all colors, shapes and sizes (even one in a wheel chair) lead to fun discussions as we read. My five year old loves it too!