Little gosling loves this one and we’ve been having lots of fun leafing through “Zoology for babies” for more than a year, since before he turned one. Definitely his favourite so far amongst the various Baby 101 that we have. We have been using it to learn the animals and about their world, as it includes basic information about variety of sizes, habitats (with dedicated pages for the sea, jungle, forest or the desert), what they eat, where they live or how they are born. Its cute, simple colourful illustrations speak to babies from very early on, whilst toddlers can be kept busy with the information within and storylines and activities related to it. 

Little gosling had a phase when he was turning the pages straight to the Emperor penguins in Antarctica. He loved penguins. Then, after playing with a toy camel at his granny’s place, he would go to the desert page. After spending time in the countryside, collecting the eggs laid by the hen, he would look with interest at how chicks hatch from eggs. He laughs at the jungle page, where a parrot loudly shrieks “sqwak”, roars pointing at the tiger and makes me sing Culture Beat’s Karma Chameleon when he sees the chameleon, swinging his head from side to side to the rhythm. Also, it is the only book we have with bats and fireflies and crocodiles 🤓, and the lift the flap surprise at the end of the book generates excitement every time. 

Some weeks ago, we were naming animals and out of nowhere he points to the crocodile, saying its name with a different accent and starts clapping his hands 😅. It could not be Romanian, there was no context for it. Thus, it must have been something he had learnt at the nursery. He’s been going to a nursery in French since last November. The next day, when I picked him up at the nursery, I asked whether they had been singing a song about crocodiles, and that is how I came to learn “Ah les crocodiles”, which we now sing as part of the daily round-up of nursery rhymes. Thank God for youtube 😂!