Zoe and Her Zebra (A Barefoot Board Book)
PreSchool-K-A visually tactile phantasmagoria. Rendered in "felt with braid, buttons, beads and assorted bric-a-brac," the illustrations beg to be touched. Each page features a letter of the alphabet written in upper and lowercase, with a child being pursued by an animal. Both of their names begin with that letter, e.g., "Ss is for Sita-but who is chasing her?" as a blue-and-green snake slithers behind her. The youngsters suggest a wide variety of ethnicities as do many of their names such as Farooq, Gopinder, Hamadi, Pedro, and Takeshi. Some preschoolers may be frightened by all this chasing and few are likely to know animals such as jackal, umbrella bird, or xoona moth. Nevertheless, most will enjoy the guessing and devour the visuals, and the key on the last three pages will clear up any confusion. This companion book to Beaton's One Moose, Twenty Mice (Barefoot, 1999) is an obvious choice for read-alouds and a fine addition that may even inspire youngsters to create their own felt art.Jody McCoy, The Bush School, Seattle, WACopyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.