Dear Zoo

A very well produced dual-language version of Rod Campbell’s lift-the-flap book that has remained a firm favourite in early years. The layout of the book with its superb bold illustrations and lots of space around both language texts, makes for an excellent reader-friendly dual language book.

Albanian (which uses roman script) is clearly distinguished from English by using a different font and a slightly larger size. The label ‘From the Zoo’ on each box is too small to fit both languages in, so the words are sensibly printed in the same font in either Albanian or English on alternate pages.

Each repetitive refrain running through the text – ‘So they sent me a… He was too… I sent him back’ – enables some comparison and talk about the two different languages and not just in early years classes – Year 3/4 children would find it fascinating to try to match some of the Albanian text to the English. (Available in 17 dual language editions.)