For each feeling, the bold, graphic artwork creates an animal out of heart shapes, from “eager as a beaver” to “angry as a bear” to “thoughtful as an owl.” An accessible and beautiful debut, My Heart Is Like a Zoo is everything a classic picture book should be: honest, sincere, and speaking directly to even the very youngest child.

My Heart Is Like a Zoo features bright colors, simple sentences, playful animals, and more than 300 hearts for children to count and enjoy. Caldecott Medalist Brian Selznick says, “Starting with one simple shape, Michael Hall shows us a nearly infinite number of ways to make a menagerie of love.”

Greenwillow Books, 2009, 32 pages, hardcover 978-0-06191-510-9,
paperback 978-0-06200-366-9, board bk 978-0-06191-512-3

purchase links: local bookseller : barnes & noble : amazon

resources

My Heart is Like a Zoo teaching guide

awards and recognition

International Children’s Book Award 2010
Capitol Choices recommended 2011
Minnesota Book Award winner 2011

selected reviews

Booklist

“… the simple rhymes about feelings will have preschoolers savoring the words, joining in, and pointing at every playful zoo scene.”

Publishers Weekly

“Children just learning about shapes will revel in these pages.”

School Library Journal

“An outstanding choice for one-on-one sharing.”