King of the Zoo product reviews

"The king of the zoo is ME, that's who." This is a delightful children's book about a chameleon who thinks that he is the king of the zoo until he finds out that all the other animals in the zoo have crowns on their displays at the zoo too. Off he goes to find out if he is still king of the zoo.

Straight away the lovely bright cover welcomes you in, inviting the kids to have a read. The first page of the book shows you a map of the animals, each one numbered, this is great as if you spend the time to look over it you can read aloud from numbers 1 - 8 but also, they are in this order through the book. I made it a little game with Miss 4 by reading a page, then flicking back to the map and getting her to tell me who was next and then seeing if she was right.

My children said their favourite character was Carlos the chameleon and the thought he was very funny trying to figure out if he was still king of the zoo or not. Each animal he met, he did something that they tend to do, is. the hippo sinks so Carlos 'sank to a new low' etc which was great for acting out which they loved. My children also tell me that they were very glad that he felt like a king in the end.

This is a fun book for the kids and one that gets you all involved, mine want to act it out now.

My three year old shares my fascination with chameleons and their ability to change colour. The King of The Zoo is about a chameleon that thinks he is the king of the zoo and is disappointed to find out lots of other animals have been given this title too. This book was an instant hit with her.

The illustrations in this book are so cute. The chameleon changes to look like the animal he is visiting. This is not mentioned in the text so on first reading I didn't even notice it. I think my favourite is when he has the giraffe pattern on it. As well as changing to match the animal he also changes to reflect his mood which got us into a discussion about emotions and why he was felling like that.

There is a lovely message in this story about feeling valued and how you can make one person (or chameleon) feel goods out themselves just by the way you treat them.