Zoo Day by Tina Marie Kaht

Title: Zoo Day
Author: Tina Marie Kaht (no website found)
Publisher: Amazon
Rating: WORTHY!

Colorfully illustrated by Hatice Bayramoglu.

This is one of a series and based on this, which covers a zoo trip, and which is the only one I've read, it's a winning series. Who doesn't love a trip to the zoo? I know that some feel that zoos are not a good idea in that they entrap animals which otherwise would be free to live a "normal life" but given that nature is, as Alfred Lord Tennyson reminded us, red in tooth and claw, it's not so bad to have a sheltered existence, especially if you're one of a few remaining and endangered members of a dying species.

I loved zoos as a kid and have never lost that love for animals, nature, preservation, and good ecology. I am not sure how kids would learn these vital things so well if it were not for a chance to see real live animals in zoos.

This one is told in, shall I say, interesting rhymes and has a variety of kids of all hues going to the zoo. I was curious about rhyming night with eyes rather than sight' when the 'bat' page came around. Maybe this was done deliberately to get kids out of a lazy habit of expectation and stir things up a bit. If so, it worked on me!

One thing which bothers me about this kind of book is that pretty much every animal featured was a mammal, which is misleading when it comes to understanding how varied and diverse the natural world is. This book was no exception. It was nearly all mammals. There was only one reptile - a snake - and two birds. There were no fish or amphibians - which is the most endangered class of animals there is.

I know it's not the job of writers of children's books to educate, per se, but it could be. I'd like to have seen more diversity. That said, the book was interesting, it did show a variety of mammals, and it was engaging and colorful, so I am willing to rate this one positively as a decent start, whilst hoping for better in future.

Dress Up Day by Tina Marie Kaht

Title: Dress Up Day
Author: Tina Marie Kaht
Publisher: CreateSpace Publishing (Amazon)
Rating: WORTHY!

Illustrated by beautifully by Hatice Bayramoglu

Dress Up Day is a warm, fun adventurous children's picture-book story about what every kid already loves to do - dress up and become someone else! No doubt they will love some of the ideas and "costumes" featured here. I personally love the fire department with red buckets on the fire-fighter's heads!

Unlike in real life where we don't always get what we want, on dress up day you can be anything or anyone: an artist, a chef, a doctor, a farmer, a firefighter, a music performer, a pilot, a policeman, a princess, or a teacher, or anything else you choose. You can be just like mom or dad, or your guardian or sibling, or aunt or uncle, grandparent, next-door-neighbor or someone you just saw in the street! Or you can be completely different. You can even make up your own career. It's entirely between you and your imagination and only an charlatan would try to predict the outcome when those two start going at it....

The text is short and sweet - extra sweet in fact, since it's in verse. Not inverse, just in verse. No, not Justin Verse, simply poetic. There! All kinds of kids are shown pursuing all kinds of kidly careers, and being paid in nothing but fun, the main currency in kidville. My only concern is how far a parent will get through this story book before the kids are running off wanting to dress up themselves, but that's your problem. I don't want to know about it! My kids have grown a bit (although not completely, I confess) beyond dress up.

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So what's to be done with a book like this? Well, share it with your kids, let them dress up in whatever they want, and then join in. You know you can't beat 'em (it's illegal!) so join 'em!