Sam Who Never Forgets

When my husband brought the book home when my first child was 2 years old, I was miffed. I like childrens books that have something for adults, and at first glance, this book seemed boring - it is repetitive, predictable, exceedingly simple. But these are exactly the elements that captivate young readers (and listeners). My now 6 year old loves reading it. My 3 year old has memorized it, down to "Deliciously good barks the seal". They read the book every night, and I learned to love it too. My 6 year old's review... "sam the zoo ceeper feeds the animals but not alwase because elefent tinks he dusent but elefint is rong cus Sam has a wagen full of haye. elefint hugs Sam. Sam hugs elefint. and nmo whon shud fruget but sometimse you do. so if you fruget next time remember. So that story teches you never to fruget and I think I love Sam because he never ever frugets."

When my son was a year old I began reading him this book. It soon became a very important part of our daily point-to-things-in-pictures and reading routine. By the time he was two, I could probably have recited it in my sleep. Good for dramatic reading and detail finding, counting animals, talking about feelings. He's 23 now, and has been an avid reader all his life. I credit books like this one for a very good beginning. He does still remember this book. I'm getting it again for a friend's baby.

It is so good to see this book available again. My children grew up with the colorful pictures and gentle prose of Eve Rice's tale. I think although the title is about Sam, the story is really about Elephant, who thinks he has been forgotten when Sam the Zookeeper feeds the rest of the animals. What Elephant doesn't know is that Sam has only gone off to get Elephant a special wagon full of the food Elephant loves. And isn't that what life is like? Real happy endings are not about getting what we want, but about getting Even More, often in surprising ways. I am getting this for nieces and nephews now, and will save a few copies for the I'm-hoping-for-someday grandchildren.

My infant son (now ten) absolutely adored this book, I guess maybe at least partly because of the bright colors. He would stare and stare and get all excited and giggly. And later he liked the story too. Not much of a story from an adult perspective, but boy oh boy does the author have a line to the hearts of the very small. I treasure our beaten and slobbered on old copy of this book like his hospital ID bracelet.

My six month old son and I love this short, simple, fun book about a zoo keeper, Sam, who feeds the animals every day. We read it several times a week and my son loves it when I use different voices for each of the animals that Sam brings food to. My son seems to like all the colorful drawings and it is very easy to entertain him by starting right back over at the beginning of the book, too. This is one of the first books that I read to him months ago and it's still a big favorite.