Member Reviews
Beverly J, Reviewer
All aboard, little train lovers! Adventure awaits on the Wild Zoo Train! This book is a cute and colorful story that children will really enjoy. It is a trip for the imagination as passengers start out for a fun train ride at the City Zoo and end up in the jungle, the savanna, and even Antarctica! As they pass through different areas, they encounter the different types of animals that live in different environments. More and more people want to climb aboard and experience the fun for themselves. And for a special surprise at the end of the book, the train begins its journey to an unexpected place that hopefully readers will experience in a later book! Preschoolers, toddlers, and even some younger primary age children will love this book. The illustrations are colorful, humorous, and eye-catching. This book would be an excellent read-aloud book for the classroom or at home. I really enjoyed the pages that talked about the different kinds of animals you would find in different parts of the world. The rhyming on these pages was a nice touch. Children will enjoy the sound effects they hear as this book is read aloud and they will want to read it over and over again. Wild Zoo Train is the perfect mix of educational fun. |
Cute book for young readers. Depending on your audience, it might be too young for a school library. |
Susan M, Reviewer
The next time I go to the zoo, I am going to be looking for the Wild zoo train. It's a ride I want! It's amazing all the different places and animals you'll see. It's a delightful picture book that is delightfully written. I enjoyed the rhythms of the telling in this story. The illustrations are fantastic! I recommend this book for anyone of any age as it made me smile and laugh with joy. I used to do story hour at the public library and know that this would be the perfect book to read and show! All kids, regardless of age would enjoy this book! |
Bonnie G, Reviewer
Cute illustrations and storyline. My daughter really enjoyed have it read to her. |
"ALL ABOARD!" shouts the conductor and a flock of children obediently climb onto the train that is going to take them on a wonderful zoo adventure that they will never forget. Each trip accelerates their excitement and becomes more and more absurd. The kids try to follow the Zoo Map but it doesn't jive with where the train leads them. Oh my what a thrill this is going to be! This fun book is written by Carmela Lavigna Coyle, the bestselling author of the "Do Princesses"... series and the very talented illustrator Steve Gray of "There Was a Coyote Who Swallowed A Flea." The magical train chugs and weaves through Canyonlands, the Amazon jungle, the African Savanna, Antarctica, and finally... guess where? THE MOON!!!! The overzealous wee passengers hold on tightly and can't wait for the next stop. The repetition and rhyming make this a very fun read and younger kids can saying "Choo-choo-choo" with the steaming train ,"Ding-ding-ding" with the bell, "Clickety-clack with the wheels spinning round and "TOOOOT-TOOOOT" with the whistle on top. The illustrations are whimsical, comical and humorous. Kids will love to identify and learn about all the varieties of animals that are depicted in each setting. I love this book and I highly recommend it. |
Wild Zoo Train is a fun children's book written by Carmela LaVigna Coyle and illustrated by Steve Gray. According to book description: "A zoo train full of children takes a mysterious turn into the wilds. As each train trip becomes more and more wild, curious children observe the whimsical world around them!" Within thirty-two pages, Wild Zoo Train is an easy-to-read book that features entertaining illustrations. It's geared toward young children, particularly ages three to seven. Note: I received this book from NetGalley, which is a program designed for bloggers to write book reviews in exchange for books, yet the opinions expressed in this review are my own. |
I received this ARC from Netgalley for an honest review. A charming and fun book with great rhyming, repetition and vocabulary words. The Strong illustration will have kids flipping the pages and wanting to read it again and again. |
Stephanie F, Reviewer
~Disclaimer~ I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affected my opinion of the book, or the content of my review. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Wild Zoo Train is a fun book filed with trains and animals. This book will definitely keep a childs' attentions. The repetitive train sounds will be fun for them to sound out themselves. It also teaches where in the world different animals can be found. The one thing that was a little distracting to me was that the eyes in the illustrations weren't the same size. Making the characters look a little kooky. But that's just me. All in all a good fun and interactive read. 5/5 ⭐ |
Two things that my grandson loves are animals and trains. This book combines them in a humorous way that he loved. The illustrations are comical and the repeating noises of the train had him "reading" along with me. It was a simple story with rhyme that will have kids asking over and over to read it again. A great story for kids, especially a good read before a visit to the zoo. |
What can I say? This book was adorable. The illustration was vivid and intricate. The animals were perfect, and my son asked to "buy the book so we could see the story in color (reading this on our paperwhite)". I Give it two thumbs up and would love to have a copy for our personal library. |
This book was so fun, my three year old wanted me to read it over and over again. The story was entertaining, with a mix of rhyme and verse. My favorite part was the art. Loved the penguins and the sloth. This book was really well done and I'm sure my son will be begging me to read it all summer. |
My youngest absolutely LOVED this book. She’s a big fan of animals so this was right up her alley. I found her later playing with one of her old Fisher Price trains and having the animals sit on it to mimic the book which is always a mark of a good story that it encourages a child to create new fun ways to play. One of the best things about this is that it’s not your prototypical ‘train’ book as you’re not going to see it just stick to the tracks. Instead this train travels all over including to the moon! The repetition and rhyming made it easy for her to catch on and she enjoyed saying the “Choo-choo-choo” with me so we had this fun mother-daughter time. The illustrations are so colorful and humorous you can’t help but fall in love with how fun this book is and all the different settings so you can teach your young child about the differences between the desert, jungle and the moon. |
Googly-Eyed Fun
You know how they always say "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder"? Well, that always strikes me as good advice when it comes to picture books for little readers. There are some well-regarded books that just don't appeal to me. Don't know why, since I, like most two year olds, am open to just about any style.Then again, there are some books that are just delightful. Again, no way to explain it.
But I can say, at least for this reader, this book was a hoot. We find ourselves on one of those big-circuit zoo trains. But this train is different. Instead of chugging around the lions and past the reptile house and through the aviary we somehow ride through Canyonlands, the Amazon Jungle!, the African Savanna, and Antarctica.
On the way we encounter silly, highly stylized, googly eyed animals common to those landscapes. They all look cheerful and friendly and, if truth be told, a bit demented. The kids on the train and the conductor look a bit nutsy too, and the whole project is crisp, bright and colorful. The rhyming captions are brisk and energetic, ("clickety-clack go the wheels on the track"), and are just right for reading aloud with lots of gusto.
So, the setup is fun, the animals are interesting, the route is novel, and the overall effect is bright and fun. A very happy find.
(Please note that I received a free advance will-self-destruct-in-x-days Adobe Digital copy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)
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How do I even explain to you how excited I was to open this book. You get on board the Wild Zoo Train and the conductor will take you on a journey throughout the zoo. There are so many fun sayings that children can happily chime in on as they ride along and see their favorite native plants and animals. This book is fun...fun..fun and will leave everyone laughing while teaching about the different habitat requirements ( space, food, water and shelter) too. The content is brilliant and the illustrations are just ...Cho...Cho..Cho..WILD. |
Ryan A. F, Librarian
This would be a fun book to do at story time. I can see the kids getting into the sounds the train makes between stops, plus describing the animals in rhyming pattern is fun. However, the “all aboard” sections do not have the same flow and it breaks up the stories. The illustrations are fun and I can see it getting lots of use, but I also think it could have been done better. Added Goodreads Added Litsy |
Love, love, love this book! Both our boys adore trains and this was the perfect story to help their imaginations run wild. Ride along on the Wild Zoo Train and travel all over the globe and beyond Earth... The repetition and rhyme in the book help early readers join in the storytelling. The illustrations are bright and wonderful. There is always something new to see if you just take the time look again. This book truly knocked it out of the park for us. It will be enjoyed for years! |








