Review: A Zoo in My Shoe a book by Jason Korsner

In March this year we welcomed our first baby, a little girl ‘R’, and today she makes her first appearance here as we are reviewing a lovely children’s book from author Jason Korsner. Although she is too young at 3 months old to be fully engaged with books her Dad and I really want to encourage her to love books, so we were very happy to take a look at this one.

Jason Korsner is a radio news reader, TV news reporter, film journalist and reviewer. He has made short films, exhibited his photography and written four children’s books, the first two of which were published in October 2019.

Excited about introducing his children to the joys of reading, Jason found that many of the books he’d enjoyed as a child himself were nothing like as satisfying to the adults reading them out aloud, so he set out to write books that would be as engaging for the adults every bit as much as they engage the children.

Released in June this year, A Zoo In My Shoe is a hilarious new rhyming picture book that takes children on a tour around a fictional zoo to meet many of their favourite animals. Tigers, giraffes, penguins, elephants, pandas and many more make an appearance.

First, each animal is introduced to readers with a sensible sentence – for example, “lots of wild animals live in the zoo” before the words are mixed up to create nonsense rhymes that will send children into fits of giggles such as “lots of wild animals live in the loo!” The book is a perfect example of how word-play can influence the meaning of a sentence. I have to admit the book had me in stitches!

This book is perfect for use in KS1 and nursery classes. As well as enjoying the silly situations many of the animals end up in, children are inspired to imagine their own experiences for their favourite animal or pet. 

As I said, R is too young to really understand the book (it is described as being for 3+ years) however she really did enjoy looking at the delightful illustrations from Max Low while her Dad read to her (with me giggling like a mad woman in the background). I would certainly recommend this book to any parent looking for something fun to share with their little ones. It gets 5 stars from us!