Feeding time at the zoo

Readers are invited to experience meal time for the zoo's animals in this Step-into-Reading series offering. The story touches on food preparation but concentrates on the dietary preferences of each animal. Elephants love watermelon, panda bears desire bamboo leaves, and pink flamingos eat pink shrimp. The animal kingdom is well represented with pigs, a zebra, a giraffe, birds, a tortoise, a porcupine, a polar bear, a sea lion, a tiger, and an alligator. The storyline is simple but will interest young readers, and while the vocabulary has challenges, the large color photographs will help kids along. The work is based on Shahan's photoessayFeeding Time at the Zoo, published in 2000.--Edmundson, Martha Copyright 2014 Booklist

What do zoo animals eat?Clear, colorful photographs accompany a very simple text to answer this question. This title, originally published as a picture-book paperback in 2000, has been simplified for its transition to the Step into Reading series. Using a very basic vocabulary, simple sentences and repetition, the text touches on food preparation and feeding for elephants, zebras, giraffes, a panda, pigs, tortoises, porcupines, tigers, alligators, a sea lion, polar bears, a macaw, a cockatoo and flamingos. Children feed snacks to goats and eat ice pops themselves. Many of the pictures are the same as in the earlier edition, but some have been reworked. A few new images emphasize the feeding connection: The hand holds a meatball for the tiger behind the bars; another hand feeds a banana to a porcupine. The animal portraits will give struggling readers pleasure, but the narrative, full of exclamation points and questions, will not. Where previously the tiger struts into her yard and relaxes under a shady tree, here he naps in the sun. This new version may offer practice in associating letter combinations with sounds, but it wont convey any of the enjoyment that reading can offer. Animal feeding is much more exciting in the DK reader Feeding Time, by Lee Davis(2001), which describes animals in the wild and even includes a picture index.A lesser choice for beginning readers. (Early reader. 5-7) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.