Miffy at the Zoo

This is one of my personal favourites in the Miffy series, where Miffy (a little girl bunny) goes to the zoo with her father. They take the train and go to see the parrots, a zebra, a kangaroo, an elephant, a monkey, two giraffes, and a turtle. It's great fun for kids with the bright-coloured simple pictures. My one-year old daughter loves to point at the pictures and "say" the names of the animals. The text has four lines of rhyme on each page that describe what is seen on the page. After reading it only a few times, my daughter can now spot any monkey a mile away.

I have the original version of Miffy at the Zoo, published in 1965, and printed in Holland. I have recently bought the updated version,owing to wear and tear on the first copy. I am quite disappointed that the text has been changed, as my 15 month old grand-daughter was becoming so familiar with the original. I can't quite understand why parrots can't say "Pretty Polly" now and have to say "Pretty bird" instead! And why does Miffy have to have a 'father' and not a Daddy? The repeated use of the word 'funny' on the zebra page implies a certain lack of imagination on the part of the translator. Am I just being over-fussy to want to read the original text I wonder? I don't dislike the rhyming text, but the original was simpler and very direct for young children.

My son loves the pictures and colours in these books. I remember loving the colours too when I was a child reading them in England. When I read them to him, I actually get "warm fuzzies" from the nice memories they bring back.

Dick Bruna was one of the first author-illustrators to celebrate a very young child's need for simple, clear illustrations. The pictures in Miffy at the Zoo are both eyecatching and satisfyingly representational: the elephant, for instance, looks as grey and solid as an elephant should. The single colour backgrounds offer wonderful juxtaposition for Bruna's strongly outlined Miffy (a girl bunny), her father, and the colourful zoo animals she meets. The rhyming text gives the parent something rhythmic and appropriate to say with every page, and still allows for embellishments in time-honoured tradition: "Where's the elephant's trunk?"; "How many parrots do you see?" Moreover,its paper pages and square, small shape, make this a sturdy choice as you teach your baby to develop his own page-turning skills! Dick Bruna's books were readily available in the 70s, but have been hard to find in more recent years. How heartening then to find the Miffy series back in print and still possessing a fresh, timeless appeal. True early classics.