Pumpkin Day at the Zoo - by Susan Meissner (Hardcover)

About the Book

When farmers and pumpkin patch owners donate their extra pumpkins to the zoo, the animals chomp, chew, play, and give hearty hoorays for their favorite squishy squash! Grab a pumpkin and follow along as this read-aloud zoo book for preschoolers and elementary-age kids celebrates the fall season in the most entertaining way.

Book Synopsis

"Refreshingly, an autumn book that isn't about Halloween." --Kirkus Reviews

When farmers and pumpkin patch owners donate their pumpkins to the zoo, the animals chomp, chew, play, and give hearty hoorays for their favorite squishy squash! Grab a pumpkin and follow along as this lighthearted, lyrical zoo book for preschoolers and elementary-age kids from bestselling novelist Susan Meissner celebrates the fall season in the most entertaining way.

Here come the wagons down the streets, rumbling and tumbling with pumpkin treats! Kids will love watching the zoo animals enjoy their autumn snack in this educational, rhyming story.

With lively artwork from illustrator Pablo Pino, Pumpkin Day at the Zoo

• is ideal for ages 4-8;
• is recommended for classrooms and libraries focused on animal life, fall festivities, and generosity;
• shows kids the importance of donating and repurposing excess; and
• is the perfect gift for National Pumpkin Day, back-to-school celebrations, Halloween, or Thanksgiving.

Both humorous and educational, Pumpkin Day at the Zoo applauds all the good that comes from sharing in your community.

Review Quotes

Voracious animals chow down throughout this account of an autumnal highlight: a zoo's post-Halloween pumpkin day. Chipper imperative rhymes from Meissner invite a menagerie of species--an aardvark with a 'spiffy sniffer, ' apes and baboons, hippos, a wildebeest, and others--to partake in a feast ('Marvelous meerkats, / come have a bite./ We know you love this crunchy/ delight'). As human figures portrayed with various skin tones gather, Pino's animation-style artwork portrays myriad scenes of the zoo's animal denizens enthusiastically devouring their treats. A beaver stares out from a pumpkin worn like a diving helmet; a yak, rind speared on its horn, slurps up seeds; and enterprising chipmunks collect fragments in a wooden wagon. Concluding pages show the whole gang with bellies bulging as final remarks imagine what the wild diners might say as thanks for the squashes. The carnivalesque vibe contributes to a genial picture of fall's bounty from an animal's-eye view.--Publishers Weekly