Wild Zoo Train

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!

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.

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.)

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.

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.

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.

~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.
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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 ⭐

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.

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.

"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.

Cute illustrations and storyline. My daughter really enjoyed have it read to her.

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!

Cute book for young readers. Depending on your audience, it might be too young for a school library.

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.

I loved this book! It is so very colorful, crazy train conductor, the kids see all kinds of animal that you would find in a zoo. It could also be easily use as a search and find.. Names of the animals and a small child could point out what that animal is on the page. The book is all about children visiting the zoo and hoping on a train to see different parts of the zoo and the conductor making sure they have what ever they need to do that .. one is water, sun glasses, one is a rain poncho etc. Just a great all around book for memorize and practing words.

My son absolutely loves this book, sometimes if we're out shopping we'll pretend we're in a jungle and looking for animals so he really connected to it. His pushchair is now the zoo train. It's a great addition to his kindle library and we read it over and over without ever getting bored of it. A firm favourite

What a delightfully, fun, crazy and engaging picture book, this is sure to become a favourite of many many children and i can see this becoming a favourite of mine to read at story time sessions.

The illustrations are perfectly done for this book, their a little out there with all the animals and people having crazy two sized eyes and a good balance between bold and more subtle colours throughout.

The pages that have Choo-Choo-Choo on them are going to make for fun pages to read with your child or group. There will be children shouting those words out on the tops of their lungs. I see a whole lot of fun with and in this book.

The book is sure to be a big hit with those that like train books, and the occasional odd looking animal. The repetition of words makes it a good book for early readers to read and will become familiar to them more easily.

I highly recommend this book.

This train will take you on the journey of your lives. It is no ordinary zoo train! This train will take you all over the world and to the moon and back! Wild Zoo Train is a fun and adventurous romp through several different biomes all across the world, from the jungle to the Antarctic and highlighting animals from each.

This is perfect for beginner readers with it's repetitive phrases, rhymes, and onomatopoeia. The full color spreads and fun illustrations will keep your little ones entranced and entertained!

My little one adored all the animals and the wonderful train sounds!

Trains and animals are a favourite among kids and this book has it all! Eye catching illustrations, great rhyming, repetitive sound words, all the ingredients that make up a great children's book. It even teaches you a bit about animals found in different habitats. I have a son with autism who is obsessed with trains. I read his this book and and loved it so much, he hasnt stopped looking at it.

A cute, colorful illustrated book about a train traveling around seeing different animals. Great rhyming and variety of animals. Perfect for the little ones.

Very busy little train! My Kindle doesn't do it justice, but I think young kids will wish this train was real! Heck I wish it was real! Illustrations were busy and fun to look at!

There is a lot of information packed into this book. It manages to do that in a fun way that makes it easy to remember. The illustrations fit the fun feeling of the book.

Wild Zoo Train by Carmela LaVigna Coyle & Illustrated by Steve Gray a charming is a fun book filed with trains and animals. It is full of great rhyming, repetition and vocabulary words. The strong illustration will have kids flipping the pages and wanting to read it again. 

It is so very colorful, crazy train conductor, the kids see all kinds of animal that you would find in a zoo. It could also be easily use as a search and find. The book is all about children visiting the zoo and hoping on a train to see different parts of the zoo and the conductor making sure they have what ever they need to do that. Just a great all around book for memorize and practing words. 

I received this ARC from Rowman & Littlefield and Muddy Boots via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Once the Wild Zoo Train loads up its riders, it pulls out of the station with some choos and some dings and a clickety-clack and a toot-toot and it embarks on an off-the-zoo-map adventure. The train ventures through a canyon to a jungle to a savanna to the Antarctic and beyond!

Filled with train sounds and animals, The Wild Zoo Train will be a hit with toddlers and preschool age kids!

Wild Zoo Train by Carmela LaVigna Coyle and Illustrated by Steve Gray is slapstick silly which was a little too much for me as an adult. However, my grandchildren loved it. I liked the, rhyming and repetition, along with the different habitat that the zoo train visited. The younger ones loved the sounds words, such as “clickety-clack” and “Chooooooooo”.

My grandchildren, ages3, 5 and 7, loved the illustrations especially the comical interpretation of the animals. This is a book that the kids enjoyed the first time as we read through it but then revisited, giving each page a closer look. For me it is a 4 Star book but the children overwhelming voted it a 5 Star book. Their vote carried the day especially since it is a book for children.

I thought this book was cute. The pictures were colorful and held my 2 year old's interest. I thought the story was just OK but my daughter didn't care; she loved it- animals and trains!! I was given a preview copy of this book from Netgalley.