Zoe and Her Zebra (A Barefoot Board Book) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)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.

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