Product Description
This digital document is an article from Children's Digest, published by Benjamin Franklin Literary & Medical Society, Inc. on March 1, 1997. The length of the article is 542 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: The Popcorn Park Zoo. (refuge for animals that were unwanted, sick or abandoned; located in New Jersey)
Author: Lou Harry
Publication: Children's Digest (Magazine/Journal)
Date: March 1, 1997
Publisher: Benjamin Franklin Literary & Medical Society, Inc.
Volume: v47Issue: n2Page: p28(3)

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Product Description
A dolphinarium is an aquarium for dolphins. The dolphins are usually kept in a large pool, though occasionally they may be kept in pens in the open sea, either for research or for public performances. Some dolphinariums consist of one pool where dolphins perform for the public, others are part of larger parks, such as marine mammal parks, zoos or theme parks, keeping other animals and having other attractions as well.While cetaceans have been held in captivity since the 1860s, the first commercial dolphinarium was opened only in 1938. Their popularity increased rapidly until the 1960s.Since the 1970s, increasing concern for animal welfare lead to stricter regulation, which in several countries ultimately resulted in the closure of all dolphinariums in the past decades. Despite this trend, dolphinariums are still widely spread in Europe, Japan and North America.The most common species of dolphin kept in dolphinariums are Bottlenose Dolphins as they are relatively easy to train and have a long lifespan in captivity. ... Read more

Product Description
SECOND NATURE brings together the work of animal behaviorists, zoo biologists, and psychologists to explore innovative strategies for environmental enrichment in laboratories and marine parks as well as in zoos. Providing a theoretical framework for the science of environmental enrichment in a variety of settings, the book renews and extends a humane approach to the keeping and conservation of animals. 28 illustrations . ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

The best book of environmental enrichment
This book is a masterpiece, cause the articles inside showed us in Brazil what we can do to promote welfare to our zoo animals. All chapters are essentials for any biologist that works with ex-situ conservation. I recommend this book.

Useful book for vets.
This is an extraordinary book, very useful and easy to read. Every zoo should have one.

Excellent book, a must have for zoologists
I am a zookeeper in an accredited zoological institution and this book is a must read as we care for captive animals. A comprehensive enrichment program is critical for wild animals in captive environments as these programs provide the animals with choices, complexities, and change. The guiding principle for enrichment is based on the animal's natural history. This book very appropriately emphasizes the requirement of enrichment for the animal's well being. Read this book and it will give you hope.

Excellent book!
This is my must have book (bible) for my research on environmental enrichment.If you work with animals in a captive situation, you need to read this book.The book also deals with stereotypy.A lot of excellent information on enrichment and its implications for captive animals.If you are at all interested in environmental enrichment or currently implement an enrichment program for your animals, do yourself a favor and read this book.

A nice surprise
I bought "Ethics on the Ark" at the same time as this book, and was disappointed with that book.This book, however, was a very nice surprise.I felt it gave a unbiased view of captive animal enrichment, and the ethics behind keeping animals in captivity.I appreciated the completeness of this book, starting from a historical perspective, straight through to modern reasoning.I would say this is a must have for anyone working with animals in a captive environment. ... Read more

Product Description
This interim report assesses issues related to animal management, husbandry, health, and care at the Smithsonian Institution's National Zoological Park. The report finds that there are shortcomings in care and management that are threatening the well-being of the animal collection and identifies the "most pressing" issues that should be addressed. ... Read more

Product Description
Gray, fuzzy, a little wrinkled, and waving around one helluva snout, Hansa the baby elephant was born at Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle -- and is now a star! Hansa, which means “supreme happiness” in Thai, is a rare and endangered Asian elephant born in captivity to mom Chai. Clare Meeker follows Hansa’s true-life story and tells of Chai’s difficulties getting pregnant (including a 2,000-mile roadtrip to Missouri to flirt with an 11,000-pound male!), her 22-month pregnancy, and the wondrous birth of 235-pound Hansa. Fully illustrated with full-color photographs, this fun and educational book chronicles Hansa’s remarkable birth and includes facts about elephant habitat, feeding habits, and anatomy. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Baby elephant true story for all ages
This children's book is for any one any age. It is a delight for all.

The book is about Hansa, the female baby elephant born in the Woodland Park zoo (Washington State). It is meant for children, but includes a lot of information for adults too. There are many highlights on elephants in general, their family and social life, tit-bits from ancient cultures and mythology, but most of all, Chai's (Hansa's mother) trip to the Dickerson Park zoo (Missouri) to meet Onyx (male elephant), who was to father Hansa, and her return trip to the Woodland Park zoo.

The birth of Hansa, the reaction of other elephants in the zoo, their relationships to Hansa, 'quality pestering' by Hansa, cuteness and playfulness of Hansa, the keepers and their important but dangerous job are all portrayed very well by the author.

This book is for all. No age limits/restrictions.

A wonderful book!
Even though this book is really written for older children, my 17-month-old son loves it too!We don't read the words to him, but he loves to look at the pictures and make elephant sounds.As he gets older, I'm sure he'll appreciate the information more, and my husband and I find it very interesting too.

The book is very well written and the pictures are great.I highly recommend it for all ages, especially if you have an elephant fan of your own at home!

About a baby elephant born in the Woodland Park Zoo
Hansa: The True Story Of An Asian Elephant Baby is a remarkable picturebook for young readers about a baby elephant born in the Woodland Park Zoo. Children will learn that Hansa was 235 pounds when born and by her first birthday had gained almost 800 pounds! Filled cover to cover with true facts about elephants and splendid color photographs from the Woodland Park Zoo, Hansa is very highly recommended for young people who want to learn more about this wondrous, exotic animal species. ... Read more

Product Description
From the moment the very first animals–two small, bedraggled prairie dogs–arrived at the Bronx Zoo in 1899, history was being made.
Zookeeping has steadily been evolving over the years: Today, animals that would once have been kept in iron cages roam freely in habitats similar to real prairies, jungles, and forests.
With engaging animal photos and lively anecdotes, Wild Lives takes readers through a century of zookeeping at one of the most-beloved zoos in the world, and shares what zoologists have learned over the years about keeping wild animals. ... Read more

Product Description

To modern sensibilities, nineteenth-century zoos often seem to be unnatural places where animals led miserable lives in cramped, wrought-iron cages. Today zoo animals, in at least the better zoos, wander in open spaces that resemble natural habitats and are enclosed, not by bars, but by moats, cliffs, and other landscape features. In Savages and Beasts, Nigel Rothfels traces the origins of the modern zoo to the efforts of the German animal entrepreneur Carl Hagenbeck.

By the late nineteenth century, Hagenbeck had emerged as the world's undisputed leader in the capture and transport of exotic animals. His business included procuring and exhibiting indigenous peoples in highly profitable spectacles throughout Europe and training exotic animals -- humanely, Hagenbeck advertised -- for circuses around the world. When in 1907 the Hagenbeck Animal Park opened in a village near Hamburg, Germany, Hagenbeck brought together all his business interests in a revolutionary zoological park. He moved wild animals out of their cages and into "natural landscapes" alongside "primitive" peoples from Africa, Asia, the Americas, and the islands of the Pacific. Hagenbeck had invented a new way of imagining captivity: the animals and people on exhibit appeared to be living in the wilds of their native lands.

By looking at Hagenbeck's multiple enterprises, Savages and Beasts demonstrates how seemingly enlightened ideas about the role of zoos and the nature of animal captivity developed within the essentially tawdry business of placing exotic creatures on public display. Rothfels provides both fascinating reading and much-needed historical perspective on the nature of our relationship with the animal kingdom.

Product Description
On a rainy day in May 1988, a lowland gorilla named Willie B. stepped outdoors for the first time in twenty-seven years, into a new landscape immersion exhibit. Born in Africa, Willie B. had been captured by an animal collector and sold to a zoo. During the decades he spent in a cage, zoos stopped collecting animals from the wild and Americans changed the ways they wished to view animals in the zoo. Zoos developed new displays to simulate landscapes like the Amazon River basin and African forests. Exhibits similar to animals' natural habitats began to replace old-fashioned animal houses.

But such displays are only the most recent effort of zoos to present their audiences with an authentic experience of nature. Since the first zoological park opened in the United States in Philadelphia in 1874, zoos have promised their visitors a journey into the natural world. And for more than a century they have been popular places for education and recreation: every year more than 130 million Americans go to zoos to look at the animals and enjoy a day outdoors.

The first book-length history of American zoos, Animal Attractions examines the meaning of nature in the city by looking at the ways zoos have assembled and displayed their animal collections. Situated literally and culturally in the American middle landscape, zoos are concrete expressions of longstanding tensions between wildness and civilization, science and popular culture, education and entertainment. In their efforts to promote nature appreciation, they reveal much about how our culture envisions the natural world and the human place in it and how these ideas have changed. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

the History of Zoos
Excellent.An engaging read and a well-balanced critique of zoos (primarily American zoos) over the past 100-odd years.The debate over animal rights is covered throughout, primarily as a progression of measures.Also, the view of zoos as humane/inhumane places for animal life is quite an old debate, as shown well here.Recommended for both students of museology and casual readers. ... Read more

Product Description

In 1975, Darill Clements answered an advertisement for a position as a Public Relations Assistant at Taronga Zoo, Sydney. After confessing in the interview that she had no interest in animals, she was more than surprised when she was offered the job. After only three months, Darill became an animal and zoo lover, besotted with and inspired by the joy of nature.

Postcards from the Zoo highlights behind-the-scenes life at beautiful Taronga Zoo, Sydney, chronicling a time when zoo environments changed from bars to branches. Including tales of Anastasia the albatross who hated heights, the koalas who packed their pouches for Japan and Lulu the chimp who loves fireworks, this is essential reading for all animal lovers.

Customer Reviews (1)

Blaaht
Who else is reading this for Sanzenbacher's COM 122 class?Not a great book, not too bad though.I'm not much of animal lover though. ... Read more

Product Description

From King Solomon's collections of "apes and peacocks" to the menageries of English and Hapsburg monarchs, the display of exotic animals has delighted and amazed observers for centuries. Originally prized as symbols of elite wealth and power, such collections have been dramatically transformed since 1800 -- particularly in terms of audience and purpose.

In New Worlds, New Animals, R. J. Hoage and William A. Deiss assemble essays that concentrate on the development of the modern zoo in the nineteenth century. Taking an in-depth look at the social climate of the century, they chart the transition from elaborate menageries for exclusive patrons to public facilities that expressed the power and might of nations to institutions dedicated to public education, wildlife conservation, and biological research. These changes reflect the larger transformation of the West -- from the colonial era's desire to "tame" newly discovered continents to today's more egalitarian, conservation-minded world.

New Worlds, New Animals begins with an overview of the history of menageries in antiquity and their development in Europe and the United States. Zoos in many countries had quite different origins -- including a fish market that became an animal dealership before becoming a zoo and an Australian way station originally designed to acclimate Old World domestic stock to a new continent.

The authors also examine the period in the United States between 1830 and 1880, when popular traveling animal shows and circuses gave way to the first public zoos in New York and Philadelphia. They take an in-depth look at the establishment of the National Zoological Park in Washington, D.C. -- the first zoo created to preserve endangered species. Illustrated with nearly 100 photographs, New Worlds, New Animals gives readers a new respect for and understanding of the role of zoos in social and cultural history.

Product Description

Seasoned veterinarian Phillip T. Robinson shares his remarkable stories of working at the world-famous San Diego Zoo. In vivid detail he describes encounters with foulmouthed parrots, gum-chewing chimps, and stinky flamingoes, and the sometimes dangerous consequences of both human and animal interactions. He relates insider stories such as escaping the affections of a leopard who wanted to be a lap cat, training a gorilla to hold her newborn baby gently (instead of scrubbing the floor with it), operating on a semi-anesthetized elephant, and figuring out how to feed koalas in captivity, as well as why the zoo's polar bears were turning green. Robinson's wildly entertaining tales illuminate the hazards and rewards of a world in which the "natural" and "unnatural" can collide, insightfully tracing the evolution of zoos from banal menageries to important conservation institutions.

Customer Reviews (6)

Content Mainly about Zoo Administration
OK, I was ready for exciting personal experiences and details about veterinary treatment of zoo animals.This book contains very little of that and a whole lot about zoo management, administration, etc.While I certainly acknowledge the vast amount of work necessary to operate a zoo and see that it runs smoothly with necessary provisions for all the animals; that is not what I was looking to read when I purchased this book.I was hoping to learn how they get a hippo to let you work on his teeth; or get an elephant to pick up its feet, or learn if they vaccinate all the equine animals in the zoo, if so how?Nope, this wasn't it for me.

Great real-life account of zoo life - past and present
The author is very clear in his introduction to his book by saying that it is not a "how-to" book.It is instead a very insightful and anecdotal account of what it's like to be a veterinarian/zookeeper/curator in a zoo.His stories about his own experiences and historical accounts of advancements in the industry do well to remind us how far we have come and how far we have yet to go in caring for our animal charges.I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the zoo industry and wants a better understanding of what it's like behind the scenes.

Great general view of complexity of zoos
This was an easy to read, very well described, first-hand account of the complexity of working in a first class zoo.

Of beasts and bureacracies
This is a delightful book. From the dust jacket to the illustrations and index, it is beautifully produced. The author, standing on the left in the dust jacket photo, provides an important inside look at life in the zoo. Robinson's career as a field biologist and zoo veterinarian at the world famous Zoological Society of San Diego provide him great insights into the minds of beasts and bureaucracies. Much of this book is will be great interest to historians of animal collections and veterinary medicine for exotics. However, any dedicated zoo patron will find this account rich and the book will reach a very broad audience among students of animal behavior, aspiring veterinarians, animal lovers and zoo keepers. The anecdotes are lively and poignant, and will resonant with those who have worked behind the scenes in similar facilities. I especially liked the tale of the infamous Ken Allen, an orangutan Houdini!

This is a book that needed writing and Phillip Robinson was the one to do it. A leading authority on zoo medicine, the author also proves himself a skillful writer and storyteller. Life at the Zoo should be at the top of your shopping list for any animal lovers or aspiring ethologists.

Witty, Funny and Infomed Look at Zoos
"Life at the Zoo" opened up the zoo world for me and provided a long and candid glimpse into how zoos function. Before reading this book I couldn't imagine how anyone could begin to provide medical care for such a diverse population of animals. I got the feeling that I was looking over the fence, peeking through the cracks and peering over the shoulder of veterinarians, animal keepers and visitors. The author writes authoritatively about what animals experience in zoos and the grave responsibility that zoo personnel have in nurturing and protecting them from both people and themselves. I appreciated the parts that discussed wildlife conservation and ethics, and others about the construction of zoo exhibits and some of the nuts, including employees, who frequent zoos. This book made me a better informed zoo visitor. I now have more of a sense of purpose and understanding when I go to my zoo. One of the high points was the author's dry sense of humor and unassuming way of sharing his experiences. Anyone who likes animals and who is curious about the role of zoos in wildlife conservation will find this valuable.
... Read more

Product Description
Drawing visitors to the heart of Chicago's north side for 135 years, Lincoln Park Zoo is one of the oldest and most popular zoos in America. This thorough and fascinating history of the zoo combines archival materials, photographs, and oral histories to chronicle the zoo's development and chart the unique role it has played not just in the growth of Chicago but in the establishment of zoos in cities across America. Lincoln Park Zoo was established in 1868 when New York's Central Park Commissioners sent the Lincoln Park Commissioners the gift of two pairs of swans. The swans were such a popular attraction that the park commissioners began acquiring other animals and building quarters for them, adding a bear cage, a bison enclosure, a sea lion pool, an eagle exhibit, and an animal house, all before 1900.Although the zoo was initially conceived as a primarily recreational attraction, its mission has evolved over time, with conservation, science, and education now forming central elements.Starting in 1884, when the zoo saw what was reportedly the first-ever birth of a North American bison in captivity, Lincoln Park Zoo has been part of the effort to study and protect endangered species from all over the world. This comprehensive history of Lincoln Park Zoo also tells the wider story of the growth of the American zoo movement and the changes that have occurred in the past century, as zoos evolved from a leisure pursuit into a multimillion-dollar industry and an invaluable participant in global conservation efforts. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Great Book!
Grandma Carol!
Your book rocked we love our copy at home!
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I highly recommend this book!
If you grew up in the Chicagoland area, you probably watched the Ray Rayner Show. It had cartoons and silly antics, and it had a sequence called, the Ark in the Park. After the Irish Rovers sang their Unicorn Song, Dr. Lester Fisher of the Lincoln Park Zoo would come out with an animal or two, and talk about them and their habitat. And all of us kids would agitate to go see Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo, the Ark in the Park.

This wonderful book is a fascinating history of the Lincoln Park Zoo, from the park's creation to clear up a swampy old cemetery (where rains would regularly wash coffins to the surface!), through the origination of the zoo, it's changes with time, and on to the very present. Along the way, the reader is treated to many great tales of dedicated zoo personnel (including Director Marlin Perkins who became famous nationwide on Mutual of Omaha's Animal Kingdom), politicians both sympathetic and not, park visitors of all dispositions (after one elephant died, it was found to have 33 pounds of bottle caps, broken glass, rubber balls, etc. in her stomach!), and animals of equally varied dispositions.

This is a great book and a great resource for anyone familiar with the Lincoln Park Zoo. More than that, this is a great resource for anyone who wishes to know more about the development of America's zoos, and how the philosophy of zookeeping has evolved over the years. I highly recommend this book! ... Read more

Product Description
Humanity has had an enduring desire for close contact with exotic animals--from the Egyptian kings who kept thousands of animals, including monkeys, wild cats, hyenas, giraffes, and oryx, to the enormously popular zoological parks of today. This book, the most extensive history of zoos yet published, is a fascinating look at the origins, evolution, and--most importantly--the future of zoos.
David Hancocks, an architect and zoo director for thirty years, is passionately opposed to the poor standards that have prevailed and still exist in many zoos. He reviews the history of zoos in light of their failures and successes and points the way toward a more humane approach, one that will benefit both the animals and the humans who visit them. This book, replete with illustrations and full of moving stories about wild animals in captivity, shows that we have only just begun to realize zoos' enormous potential for good.
Hancocks singles out and discusses the better zoos, exploring such places as the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, the Bronx Zoo with its dedication to worldwide conservation programs, Emmen Zoo in Holland with its astonishingly diverse education programs, Wildscreen in England, and Seattle's Woodland Park Zoo, where the concept of "landscape immersion"--exhibits that surround people and animals in carefully replicated natural habitats--was pioneered.
Calling for us to reinvent zoos, Hancocks advocates the creation of a new type of institution: one that reveals the interconnections among all living things and celebrates their beauty, inspires us to develop greater compassion for wild animals great and small, and elicits our support for preserving their wild habitats. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

almost good
A lot about the history of zoos and their evolving design- but not much else. The author is pro zoo and tells a bit about what is wrong w/ zoos, but nothing really about why they're justified. I'm anti-zoo myself, but I would have liked more information on the pros and cons of zoological gardens for thought rather than so much written on their design alone.

Superb! Knowledge, scope, logic, and honesty is excellent, clear & concise.
When I first opened up this book, I skipped to the last couple of chapters as I had read a couple of other books on zoos recently, I didn't think I would want to read the first few chapters as it would be repetitive information from the others - I ended up going to the start and reading the whole book, in < 2 days.The writing style is clear,logic good, and author's knowledge of zoos (And newer concepts) - all over the world is extensive, detailed, and impressive. He has a sharp eye for how a zoo is an alteration of reality.

I realized early on that the author knows his stuff when I read a single paragraph in one of the later chapters where he identified quite possibly the best zoo in the world -The Singapore Zoo and Night Safari.A zoo I visited in late 2003 - which surprised me as being quite innovative, and impressively landscaped, and designed. (Author also highlights the Costa Rica ZooAve, Belize Zoo, and Tuxtle Guiterrez, Mexico zoo - I haven't been to any of these)

As an extensive traveler and scuba diver, I dislike zoos intensely, aquariums less so. The difference between making the effort to see an animal in the wild versus at a zoo like a checklist is to put it mildly - like night and day. This author understands it. (Though I was quite impressed by Singapore's night safari concept - also heard of a night one in Malaysia - though not been yet. Many animals are more active at night.)

I've been to a handful of zoos and aquariums, most of them recently in support of a project - but they are "among the best" - San Diego, Seattle's Woodland Park, and aquariums - Monterey Bay, Seattle, and Osaka, Japan and a couple of others that are shameful - Tacoma Zoo, Monte Carlo aquarium. I hope I never visit one again - save for a few, countable on one hand, that the author highlights.

Mr. Hancocks gives a short, but concise overview on the history of zoos / animal keeping - starting from Egypt to the present day - how they evolved and how they are changing / "improving."His detailed knowledge of specific exhibits types globally, and the fallacy of zoo "conservation" efforts is impressive to say the least. He also talks about what zoos, bioparks, or museums might look like in the future, and what their future role should / can be, and even why they fall short of better examples today. He does offer both praise and criticism. He notes the irony of many zoo initiatives. I can't recommend this book any higher. This easily vaults into one of the best non-fiction books I've ever read.

Instead of zoos, how about building cities of harmony? In Nara, Japan, a modern town of 365k, 1,200 deer roam freely. There is a yearly ceremony where the antlers are cut off, otherwise they roam around in a large central park, unfenced. Accidents with cars are few due to walkable streets and low speed car traffic.

Additional books I recommend:

Life at the Zoo - perspective from a zoo veterinarian - though his logic is not quite as sound as Mr. Hancocks, nor is his knowledge of zoos around the world. Good writing style though, attentive to details, and easy to read bibliography (Which is how I found - A Different Nature).

Keepers of the Kingdom:New American Zoo - Coffee table style book with lots of large colorful photographs on the newest "innovations" of American Zoos (By a reknown NG wildlife photographer)

Zoo: A History of Zoological Gardens in the West - Quite detailed history, but easy to get lost in the writing. LOTS of wondeful historical photographs / pictures from the past. Many from Europe.

...read A Different Nature for intellectual honesty and a global perspective, Life At the Zoo for some more details and perspective from a zoo doctor, and check out the other two for the wonderful photographs!

from the Science review
See the excellent review of this book in the journal, Science (Vol. 292, page 1304, 18 May 2001), by Michalel H. Robinson, the former director of the US National Zoo.The role of zoos is normally conceived of as fourfold: to promote recreation, education, research and conservation. He concludes that, in fact, only the very best zoos realize this potential.How many visitors, for example, leave a zoo knowing more about animal needs or their native habitats than when they entered?This reflects a failure of zoological parks to promote "biological literacy."Part of the problem is the frequent catering of zoological parks to show off charismatic vertebrates to humans desiring to see them.Yet it is increasingly recognized that effective conservation must be ecological in scope and based on large-scale "in situ" preservation of habitats.This book calls for a new vision of Zoological Gardens, to help save the world around us.

If You Like Animals Even a Little, Read This Book
David Hancocks has a lot of bad things to say about zoos - but he doesn't come at it from a wing-nut "zoos are evil" perspective. He criticizes them, justifiably and intelligently, for doing a poor job. As he sees it, zoos should be able to help animals and truly educate people about nature (of which fauna are just one part), but most often they don't do so well enough.

He goes through the history of zoos, from ancient menageries to Disney's Animal Kingdom, and shows how that history relates to political, religious and scientific trends. He explains lucidly how zoos should (and sometimes do) interlock zoology with conservation, botany, geology, architecture and other fields. He doles out praise to various institutions when merrited - which is in several cases, but sadly, far outweighed by the times when zoos have failed. It's time to start doing a better job, while there's still time.

This book will give you a lot of food for thought, and make you see animals and nature and zoos in a new light. It will makes you see zoos' flaws, but also their potential. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (7)

A natural and innovative application of the Yoga practices
Yoga is too often depicted as something for crazed new age adults who wear necklaces with healing crystals hanging from their neck. "The Yoga Zoo Adventure: Animal Poses and Games for Little Kids" is a guide explaining how Yoga can be taught to children and give them much benefit and education in the process. The practices of yoga can inspire creativity, imagination on top of the much more obvious physical benefits of exercise to help kids get and stay fit. "The Yoga Zoo Adventure" is a natural and innovative application of the Yoga practices, highly recommended.

Easy language for children!
Reviewed by Cayden (age 4) and Max (age 2) Aures and Mom for Reader Views (9/08)

"The Yoga Zoo Adventure" is filled with yoga poses and fun games for young children.The book begins by giving a brief history of yoga and then goes on to explain why yoga is beneficial to young children."In essence, yoga is concerned with stilling your thought, which begins with simple forms of self-discipline and self-control." (p.3) Each one of the 106 activities in the book has easy-to-follow, detailed instructions.Following the activities there is a section on animal fables and another section that gives facts about the animals in the book.

After we went through the entire book here is what my children had to say:

Cayden: "I liked acting like all different kinds of animals!My favorite was when we were pretending to be giraffes looking for leaves way up high in the trees!I liked the wheelbarrow and zookeeper game too!It was fun when you (mom) did the animal poses and games too!I liked the stories and when we read the things about the animals that we were being."

Max:"Fun!Liked frog!Hop, hop!Snake and tiger too!"

Parent's comments:

My children and I really enjoyed this book!Even though on the cover it says it is for ages 3-7, Max, at 2, had a lot of fun with the poses and games as well.His coordination just isn't there for some of the activities but he still had a great time trying!I also loved the fables and facts at the end of the book; not only were my children exercising but they were learning as well!All of the activities were appealing to my children and "The Yoga Zoo Adventure" by Helen Purperhart will definitely be a book that we will use over and over again!

Great book!
The Yoga Zoo Adventure is a delightful book for children and parents alike. What a wonderful way to work both bonding time and exercise into a family's day. In today's society, is seems more and more difficult to find time and ways to really include vitally important family time in our daily lives. Through The Yoga Zoo Adventure, this can easily be done, as well as aiming for a more healthy lifestyle that is fun.

In The Yoga Zoo Adventure, your child will travel through a virtual zoo of their minds. Visiting such places as the Ape Cages, Desert Animal Compound, Reptile Building, Insect House, Predator Pavilions and the Aquarium just to name a few. Each section has easy to follow instructions for a yoga move that mimics the real action of an animal. An example of this is as follows:

Prowling like a shark:

~~ Lie on your tummy.
~~ Bend your legs up and point your toes toward the ceiling to make your "tale".
~~ Bring both arms behind you and entwine your fingers together.
~~ Slide your arms up to the middle of your back to make your "fins".
~~ Lift your head and swim like a shark prowling for food in the ocean by moving your tail back and forth and your fins up and down.
*taken from page 98 of The Yoga Zoo Adventure

Also included are fun bits of information on each animal, delightful games and songs and a great ending, complete with several pages discussing The Importance of Zoos and the animals that are included within the book. The Yoga Zoo Adventure is a great book for several reasons - it's fun, educational, promotes a healthy body and is a great tool to bring children and parents together. I have a 6 year old and a 2 year old and we had a ton of fun with this book. It states, on the cover, that the age range is 3 - 7, however I truly feel that The Yoga Zoo Adventure goes well beyond that age bracket.

Excellent and highly recommended!

Great Book
The Yoga Zoo Adventure by Helen Purperhart

I enjoyed this book. As I said before, I am not a yoga person but this book is a blast to do with children. Anyone that has kids at home or work with children like I do will love this book.Thumping like a gorilla or stomping like an elephant gets the kids imagination going, the heart pumping, and the giggles abound. We have done the butterfly change so many times I cant count and it works great after reading "The Very Hungry Caterpillar." Just in time for spring!But the worse thing about this book is I can't keep it on my shelf!My friends keep borrowing it or the kids keep thumbing through it to find something new to try!!Just thing what fun it would be if you did like yoga....for me it is a keeper.

Healthy Fun for the Whole Family
The book is designed for ages 3 to 7, but it was easy enough to engage my older children, along with our toddler, in hours of laugh-out-loud, adventurous fun.

I've recently incorporated yoga into my own life and thought it would be great for my children to join me.The Yoga Zoo Adventure offers the perfect blend of simple yoga positions and creativity, offering a fresh approach to encouraging movement, self-expression, and relaxation.

The book contains easy to follow, step-by-step, instructions for games and activities, along with stories and a special learning section on zoo animals.Not only fun to complete, it's a joy to read.

A great way to engage your children with the building blocks of a healthy lifestyle, or a fun book to pick up on a rainy day.
... Read more