HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Best wishes for a Happy Thanksgiving, whereever you are celebrating! Even animals at the zoo will enjoy special treats. Instead of pumpkin pie, the orangutan on the cover of my book, Mealtime for Animals, is enjoying his pumpkin as a fresh vegetable.

Zoo Animal Series Now Digital

These six books in my Zoo Animals series were published by Carolrhoda (Lerner) in 1999 but have been out of print for some time.  I am always sad when my books go out of print so I am thrilled to have this series available again, now in a digital format.  The new versions, published by StarWalk KidsMedia, can be downloaded from Amazon for your Kindle.  They are also in the StarWalk KidsMedia catalogue available for school and library and home subscription.  They are perfect as read-alouds for young children and to be read alone by children in the primary grades.

The books in this series are illustrated with wonderful photographs by Richard Hewett.  We spent many hours together at zoos watching animals and waiting for just the right moment to take a picture. It is important to have LOTS of patience when photographing animals. You can't ask an elephant to "just turn a little more this way, please!" Even though the photos look as if we were close to the animals, we were always safely on the other side of a fence or inside a vehicle. Richard used a telephoto lens to make the animals seem close-up. While he took pictures, I watched and listened to the animals and took notes that later helped me to write the books.

Click on the links below for the Amazon pages for these books.

•  Playtime for Zoo Animals  
• Mealtime for Zoo Animals
• Splashtime for Zoo Animals
• Noisytime for Zoo Animals
• Sleepytime for Zoo Animals
• Mother and Baby Zoo Animals

You can go also directly to Amazon from the book pages at StarWalk KidsMedia or you can find the links to the books on my website www.carolinearnold.com .

Cooking Up Reading: Mealtime for Zoo Animals

What do zoo animals eat? They eat some of the same foods you do. They eat other things too. Young orangutans love to munch on raw broccoli. Here is a broccoli salad you can eat.

Broccoli Salad

You will need:
Large bowl
Small bowl
Large spoon
6 cups broccoli florets
8 green onions, chopped
1/3 cup sunflower seeds
1/3 cup raisins
1-1/2 cups mayonnaise
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup vinegar
1 small jar of bacon bits

Directions:
In the large bowl, toss together broccoli, green onions, sunflower seeds, raisins, and bacon bits.
In the small bowl, mix together mayonnaise, sugar, and vinegar. Toss with vegetables to coat. Cover and chill. Eat with you fingers, just like an orangutan!

Mealtime for Zoo Animals is one of six books in a series about how zoo animals eat, sleep, play, bathe, have babies, and make noise.  These easy to read books are written for children in preschool to first grade with just one sentence and a photo on each page spread.

Other books in this series are: Mother and Baby Zoo Animals, Noisytime for Zoo Animals, Playtime for Zoo Animals, Sleepytime for Zoo Animals and Splashtime for Zoo Animals They are all out of print, but you can look for them in your library and they will soon be available online as e-books.

From Kirkus Reviews
It's chow time in the Zoo Animals series, and every one of the animals has a different dinner menu. Since mealtime is one of the biggest draws for young zoo visitors, these full-color photographs of the creatures eating will be a hit. While a rhinoceros clips the lawn like ``a giant living lawn mower,'' an elephant scoops up different fruits (peels included) to make a fruit salad in its mouth. A sentence or two accompanies every photograph, while the simple index helps emerging readers locate pictures of their favorite animals. It makes for a perfect visual outing on those days when the zoo is closed. (Picture book. 4-7)