Down by the Station

We bought this book after we checked it out of the library and my daughter did not want to return it (at 15 months of age). Now at 22 months, she loves to look at every page, finding the little details (like the seals waving goodbye and the monkey's antics). She can "read" her first words, "Danger, Uh-Oh and Phew!" I totally disagree with a previous reviewer who mentioned the separation factor and the panda using a blanket. This reviewer is reading WAY too much into the book. AS an educator of 13 years, I think this book is wonderful. The illustrations and details are inspirational. The words put into song make it a fun book to read over and over again!

My little 2 year old boy loves trains, loves animals and loves music with strong rhythms. This book is three for three. Reading it with him produced his first real singing. I'd sing a stanza and leave out the last word, he'd fill it in, and one day he just kept going. Wow. The animals are mischievous, the kids at the Childrens' Zoo diverse and the "I'll save the day" zookeeper is a woman. By the way, all the animal parents look totally relaxed about their kiddies going off to school, my son was most concerned about the fact that the Mommie elephant dropped the stop sign - "Oh nooooo!"

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.

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.

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!