Going to a Zoo

April 1, 2012

PreS-Gr 2-In this excellent series, children are introduced to a wide variety of possible field trips. Each book starts with the same two sentences and then turns to describing a type of excursion and what students might experience. For example, Concert covers pop, symphony, opera, choral, and marching-band performances. Every title concludes with a section about how visitors should act and a question that tests their comprehension. This series has a challenging vocabulary and there are no pronunciation guides. Some situations depicted in the large, clear photos may be unfamiliar to students, e.g., sumo wrestling in Stadium, rice farming in Farm, and an indoor beach in Beach, and the many new scenarios and places described, like field trips themselves, will expand their horizons.

Copyright 2012 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2012
Preschool-G The A World of Field Trips series titles all begin the same way: People take field trips to visit new places. People take field trips to learn new things. For animal lovers, there's Going to a Zoo, where kids can get up close and personal at a petting zoo, aquarium, wildlife reserve, city zoo, and bird park. Each title ends with how to behave properly at the site (for example, Don't feed the animals!), followed by an image and questionfor instance, What kind of zoo is this? which tests reading or listening comprehension skills. Geared toward the very young, the series is marked by one line of text per page (amounting to about 180 words per volume), plenty of word repetition to reinforce vocabulary, and a single large, bold photograph per page. While the series title suggests an international scope, there are no captions to verify location. Still, the books open up whole new worlds to explore; before long, kids will be begging for a trip to the (fill in the blank).(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)