ISO: Kids picture books about kids visiting a zoo

October 10, 2021 9:00 AM

Please tell me about every kids' picture book you know in which kids visit a zoo. Bonus points if it's a school field trip and/or if animals escape. What's the basic premise/plot? If there's repetition, what is repeated?

As with all these questions that I post, I'm brainstorming ideas for a Christmas book for my son.

posted by If only I had a penguin... to Media & Arts (12 answers total)

Vampenguin
Pssst!
Good night, Gorilla
posted by Geameade at 9:09 AM on October 10, 2021

If I Ran The Zoo is no longer published? Dang! I understand why, but that's sad.
posted by SPrintF at 9:47 AM on October 10, 2021

H.A. Rey’s “Feed the Animals.”
posted by Melismata at 10:25 AM on October 10, 2021 [2 favorites]

Not sure if it involves kids visiting the zoo, but "A Sick Day for Amos McGee" is a lovely zoo-oriented children's picture book.
posted by Dansaman at 11:07 AM on October 10, 2021 [2 favorites]

In the old British kids' book "Topsy and Tim Go To The Zoo," the repetition is around the idea of whether each animal would make a good pet. Their dad keeps cracking jokes about why each animal would be a bad pet.
posted by johngoren at 11:20 AM on October 10, 2021 [1 favorite]

Never Ever Shout in a Zoo

From a member review on the website:
a fun book about a little girl screaming in the zoo and scaring all the zoo animals into breaking out of their cages and running around in the zoo

The title phrase is repeated throughout the book, and each part has a rhyme.
posted by skunk pig at 1:22 PM on October 10, 2021

I swear I got 1 Zany Zoo as a prize inside a box of Cheerios about 8 years ago. It was in English and Spanish. My family is still mad at me that at some point I gave it away.

Kid visits zoo, animals escape, numbers are used as theme and so I guess you can call that a form of repetition.

From publisher: "Have you ever wondered what happens at the zoo before the gates open? Foxes who steal keys, beavers who cook chili, hyenas who play the blues…when no one is looking, anything can happen! Readers won’t believe the antics of these wacky animals, and they’ll have a blast counting along with the simple text as they encounter each increasingly crazy creature. "
posted by rabidsegue at 2:45 PM on October 10, 2021

My first thought was Madeline. They take a field trip "and to the tiger in the zoo Madeline just said 'pooh pooh'".
posted by RobinofFrocksley at 3:34 PM on October 10, 2021 [2 favorites]

"Sam Who Never Forgets". Zoo animals get anxious at feeding time.

Curious George has various adventures in zoos revealed in various mediums.
posted by SemiSalt at 4:02 PM on October 10, 2021

I hope this is okay, but it's what you are requesting, only almost perfectly backwards! Sammy the Seal(Syd Hoff) leaves the zoo for the day to explore the city and ends up going to school.
posted by hiker U. at 7:21 PM on October 10, 2021 [1 favorite]

People, including kids, do go to the zoo in Where's Wallace?, and then Wallace, the zoo's orangutan, goes elsewhere and has to be found and brought back. As picture books go, this one is an absolute gem. You may need to buy it secondhand, because I'm not sure it's still in print, but it is worth it if you can find it.
posted by dlugoczaj at 7:00 AM on October 11, 2021

Be Nice to Spiders has a zoo and a little boy. Not specifically about visiting the zoo, but worth checking out
posted by misterbrandt at 8:29 PM on October 24, 2021