Wild about Books

Wow. Grade-A book and tons of fun that a mom (and dad) can really love. As mentioned by a previous reviewer, the rhythm and rhyme are wonderful. We read a great deal of poetry -Seuss, Goose, Silverstein, Emerson, Whitman -- and the quality of Ms. Sierra's prose really stands out as being worth the reading. And, of course, hubby and I really like that all of the excitement is about books. [We're big book readers in our family, but I don't think enough good press can be had for books, reading and libraries.] The artwork is imaginative and fun as well, with plenty of the more uncommon children's animals listed. Onyx and skinks, gnu and bandicoots, for example. Five Stars. Great read-aloud. Great rhythm and rhyme. Fun pictures. It all adds up to a good time for children and adults alike. Definitely worth buying. A sample follows so you may judge for yourself: "Raccoons read alone and baboons read in bunches, And llamas read dramas while eating their llunches. Hyenas shared jokes with the red-bellied snakes, And they howled and they hissed till their funny bones ached."

What a totally delightful book! My granddaughter loved it, and equally important, so did I as the outloud reader. Judy Sierra's wit is clever enough to appeal to both the child and the child within us. Recommend it totally.

Wild About Books is one of those kids' books that runs on all cylinders. The premise, the librarian drives the bookmobile into the zoo where the animals get hooked on reading, is original and full of opportunity. The language is simply fantastic--playful, sophisticated, rhythmic, full of great sounds and rhymes, and filled with puns aimed at older readers and adults. The artwork matches the language--bright and cheery, varied in color and size and layout, filled with as many visual jokes as linguistic ones. The book doesn't condescend to its intended audience of young children or to its secondary one--the adult reading it aloud. It is a bit long for the very young (two and under) but certainly three and up will find it a wonderful read and those who are between two and three will enjoy it as much if in truncated readings. Those 30 and up will enjoy it even more. One of the best picture books of the past few years and highly recommended.

A love of reading is one of the first things parents should teach their children - reading books, signs, newspapers, cereal boxes and reading for life! Ms. Sierra's book, Wild About Books, takes that love of reading a step beyond by showing how animals of all kinds can love books, too! Can you imagine a yak reading about grasses? A trout reading about flies? What about an elephant reading about the latest stealth methods? Judy Sierra can! And Marc Brown can draw these amazing animals, too! As a mom with four avid readers, Wild About Books is a wonderful, imagination-opening adventure into the zoobrary - combining a love of reading with a love of animals. The Seuss-like words flow from your lips as fast as the rabbits and gnus can turn the pages. The ideas and conversations that flowed after reading this book were nearly as much fun as the books - one daughter wanted to go directly to our local zoo...another took the book outside to read to our dog...the youngest wanted to know more about each animal...and on and on! Books are written to be read and listened to. They are illustrated to draw the reader into the story content. Ms. Sierra and Mr. Brown have truly captured their young audience with both - giving insight into a flowing zoo world, while opening up the imagination of the child. The Queen's kids rate Wild About Books all 10 piggies!

My three year old son and I love this new book! It has a Dr. Seuss flavor to it which makes it fun and easy to read. It did start more conversations about zoo animals that we don't normally talk about at this age too which has been fun.