Zoe and Her Zebra (A Barefoot Board Book)

Rating:
Summary: Strange...
Review: I was hoping for a story (my baby is named Zoe) but instead it is another standard Alphabet book only featuring children with names that try way too hard to be diverse. Maybe my baby will grow into the illustrations, but right now she is confused by them.

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful but scary art
Review: I'm a huge fan of books illustrated by Clare Beaton. The felt images are colorful and imaginative. In fact, I'd even consider buying an original to hang in my home if I could find one.

Zoe and Her Zebra is as good as Clare Beaton's best work. Each alphabet letter is gorgeously illustrated with a child whose name begins with that letter, being chased by an animal who also begins with that letter. For example, Ben is being chased by a Bear.

I also appreciated Beaton's efforts to make the cast of children multiracial and international. Alice and Ben are accompanied by Hamadi and Naiser, Olga and Pedro.

I have only two complaints. First, most of the children are also carrying an object which does NOT begin with the relevant letter. Why is Ben carrying a yo-yo instead of a ball? It seems like a missed opportunity to reinforce the letters.

Finally, and more importantly, almost all of the pictures are of scary situations, and the children are mostly frowning or sad. Poor Luke's hair is being parted by a Leopard's claw. And Pedro has a Porcupine quill stuck in his foot. It's only when we reach Z that things are happy, and Zoe is chasing the Zebra rather than the reverse.

Overall I love the book (and so does my 15-month old son), despite the somewhat grim context.


Rating:
Summary: My 6 year old and I love this book!
Review: My 6 year old had this book in paperback for a year and read it so much it lost pages and I had to buy a new board book! He can recite it in the car on trips, and I hear him speaking the alliterations under his breath as he draws. Beautiful pictures and diversity. Thanks!

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: Without question, Clare Beaton's appliqué illustrations are gorgeous, and it's great that the text emphasizes diversity, but stick to her other books, like _How Big Is a Pig?_ or _One Moose, Twenty Mice,_ which are excellent and in the same visual style as _Zoe and Her Zebra._ This book is likely to frighten younger kids, with its depictions of frightened- and unhappy-looking children being chased by snarling animals.

I don't understand what Beaton and Barefoot Books were thinking with this book; what exactly is the point of using scary pictures to introduce the alphabet?? No doubt some people will point to Grimm's fairy tales and the like, to demonstrate that fear has a place in children's literature (which is absolutely true, it does have its place), but it's a poor rationale in this instance. First of all, most of the Grimm's fairy tales aren't intended for as young an audience as this book, and secondly, the Grimm's tales are *stories,* with plots and morals and some context for the scary parts, whereas this book has none of those things. The element of fear here is gratuitous; the author could just as easily have used non-threatening language and images without changing the substance of this book.

The fabulous illustrations are the only real redeeming factor with this book, and that bumps it up from a 1 star rating to a 3 star rating, in my opinion, but overall I would not recommend this book.