A Wild Day at the Zoo
Little Polyglot Adventures, Volume 2
A Wild Day at the Zoo is a sweet and educational picture book introduction to the wonders and diversity of the zoo, as well as the wonders and diversity of human languages.
In Victor D. O. Santos’s sweet, educational picture book from the Little Polyglot Adventure series, A Wild Day at the Zoo, family pets meet zoo animals, and some cute chaos ensues.
Families often flock to the zoo, but few do it with a pet chicken on Dad’s back. Here, for one day only, families can bring their beloved pets to the zoo, as long as the pets stay by their owners’ sides. So Dylan, his little sister, Isabella, and their parents bring their chicken Kiki with them. They place her in a special backpack for the excursion.
Around them, other families pack the zoo, too. Dylan’s family hears a variety of languages in the air, including Portuguese, Ukrainian, and Turkish; these different languages are rendered in the book, with translations at the bottom of the page, and pronunciations available by using the QR code at the beginning of the book or going to its website.
The illustrations are bright and colorful, rendering characters’ expressions well. As the family winds through the zoo, their images provide ample opportunity for viewing animal and family groupings—a passive lesson in multicultural acceptance. The text is more active in imparting these values, delivering animal facts and listing continents. This educational material is integrated with the charming, mild story of a chicken-napping, and the combination is a treat. Humor is incorporated through the animals in the form of elephant poop jokes, shocked chickens, and curious giraffes. But some of the actions explained in the text are easier to observe in the illustrations themselves, slowing the tale.
Available in other foreign language editions, A Wild Day at the Zoo is a picture book introduction to the wonders and diversity of the zoo, as well as the wonders and diversity of human languages.
Reviewed by
Camille-Yvette Welsch
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the publisher will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
