Happy Birthday Dear Zoo

'We wrote to the zoo to send us a pet.... They sent us.... an invitation to a party!'

Dear Zoo celebrates its 30th birthday this autumn. We were more than excited to be invited to be part of the celebrations. The book was a firm favourite of mine as a child, I use it regularly in my work as a speech therapist and now enjoy reading it to both 'The Fairy' and 'The Frog'.

Yesterday we went to the HQ of the publishers Pan Macmillan to have a birthday tea with the author Rod Campbell. We had so much fun.

We were treated to a trip to 'the imagination zoo' and a story telling session with Fleur the Zoo keeper.

The highlight of the day for me was having the opportunity to ask questions and meet with Rod. Did you know he used to be a scientist and only wrote Dear Zoo age 37? Or that the character 'Buster' was based on a little boy that lived next door to him? Or even that his favourite animal is a monkey (a naughty one at that)? I think 'The Fairy' was a bit confused that he was allowed to write books - 'But I thought you can only write on paper mummy, not books?!' I loved the fact that he described himself as a maker of books rather than an author or illustrator.

Come back soon for a a review of Dear Zoo Touch and Feel (published by Pan Macmillan on 30th August) and a post about how I use the book to develop communication skills.