Color Zoo

Author Lois Ehlert

Publisher Harper Collins

ISBN 0-694-01067-7

            Color Zoo by Lois Ehlert is a wonderful picture book with good picture to text match. What I love most about this book is the way it was designed. Each page has a picture of an animal made out of layered geometrical shapes with the name of the animal under the picture.  On the first page, there is a tiger’s face made out of several shapes and vibrant colors.  The pages are a series of stacked cut outs, so when you turn the first page, the tiger becomes a mouse and there is a circle on the back of the previous page.  Children can see how the shapes are used to configure the animals in the story. When you turn the next page, the cut out square is on one side, and the next animal, the fox, is on the other side.  Children will enjoy reading this book and naming the new animal on each page as well as naming the shapes in the story.  If you are worried about the cut outs on the page getting ripped while children read this book, it is also available as a board book. 

This is a great interactive book.  When you read aloud to your students, you can have them tell you the names of the nine animals, nine shapes and sixteen colors used in the story.  After reading this book to my students, I would follow up by doing an art activity. I would have them make their own animals out of shapes and have the class make their own color zoo.  What a cute idea for a bulletin board.  I love the fact that Lois Ehlert did not just use the shapes that most children are familiar with, such as the circle and square. They have a hexagon and an octagon which I find my Pre-K students mistake for a rectangle.  This book can be paired with another book by Ehlert, Color Farm, which is done in the same fashion.  Color Zoo won the 1990 Caldecott Honor for best illustration in a children’s book.