View source for Miffy at the Zoo by Dick Bruna

{{infobox2
|title=Miffy at the Zoo
|author=Dick Bruna
|reviewer=Zoe Morris
|genre=For Sharing
|rating=5
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|isbn=978-1471120824
|pages=32
|publisher=Simon & Schuster Children's Books
|date=February 2014
|aznuk=1471120821
|aznus=1471120821
|cover=1471120821
|website=http://www.miffy.com/
|video=
|summary=A classic Miffy story, this involves a fun trip to the zoo with daddy. Utterly charming.
}}
Miffy and daddy are off on an exciting day trip. They’re catching a train to the zoo! Aren’t they lucky? They see zebras and monkeys and giraffes. What a lovely day they have.

Told in short, easy rhyme, this is a charming book for Miffy fans young and old. The language is simple and the rhythm soft and bouncy and, well, fun. Just like a trip to the zoo. Originally published in 1963, this is a story that doesn’t date and so will be relished by today’s little ones in just the same way it was relished by their parents and grandparents. 

The words have been updated in this new, 2014 edition, while keeping the story unchanged. I think it’s testament to how well this has been done that at first I couldn’t tell the difference. It feels like the original Miffy I had read to me 25-plus years ago, and the differences that have been made are subtle and meant to modernise the text slightly without changing the overall tone of the book.

The illustrations are timeless classics and have so much personality to them. I love how Miffy’s daddy wears a suit and tie for a day out and how the focus is on the animals with rather plain backgrounds, so your eye is drawn to the creature and not their environment. 

This is a great example of a book that doesn’t try too hard. The rhyme seems natural, rather than forced, and the illustrations are simple, rather than over the top, but the result is sheer perfection, and any child not already best friends with her will be after they get their mitts on Miffy.

Thanks go to the publishers for sending us this book to review. It’s a winner.

[[Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell]] is another classic for animal lovers while for bigger brothers and sisters, we sincerely heart [[The Tiger Who Came to Tea by Judith Kerr]].

This book featured in our [[March 2017 Newsletter]].

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