Color Zoo Board Book: A Caldecott Honor Award Winner

by Lois Ehlert

This acclaimed Caldecott Honor Book is a visually exciting introduction to colors, shapes, and animals for preschoolers. Share this classic die-cut concept book at home or at circle time. Lois Ehlert, of Chicka Chicka Boom Boom fame, was a picture book genius. "Boldly designed pages easily carry to the rear of the room during story hours, and brilliant juxtapositions of vibrant primary colors will make children's eyes tingle." (School Library Journal) "A masterpiece of graphic design." (American Library Association Caldecott Committee) " Color Zoo is about concepts—shapes, colors, and animals—but also about looking at the world in a new and creative way." (Children's Books and Their Creators) "Employs ingeniously designed, perfectly die-cut and bound pages which line up exactly to unfold nine distinctly recognizable abstractly formed animal heads. Immensely enjoyable." (CCBC Choices) Shapes and colors in your zoo, lots of things that you can do. Heads and ears, beaks and snouts, that's what animals are all about. I know animals and you do too; make some new ones for your zoo.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Animals, Storytime, Art, Mathematics, Fiction

16 pages, Board Book

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

Lois Ehlert has created numerous inventive, celebrated, and bestselling picture books, including Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, Holey Moley, The Scraps Book, Mice, Ten Little Caterpillars, RRRalph, Lots of Spots, Boo to You!, Leaf Man, Waiting for Wings, Planting a Rainbow, Growing Vegetable Soup, and Color Zoo, which received a Caldecott Honor. She lived in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Reviews

[Calista · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beginning board book for young children about shapes. This is very clever. She uses cutouts of the shapes and colors to create animals inside each shape and then we see the shape. She will use 3 pages at a time to create an animal face and then as you turn each page it changes and we see how the shapes do this. This is too young for my kids, but for the level this is going for, it’s a great book. Lois is very creative and I enjoyed it.

The nephew thought this was neat actually and he gave it 3 stars. The niece didn’t read this.

[Manybooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

Imaginative and marvellously innovative, and as such Color Zoo is really also a wonderfully simple but totally fun introduction to colours, shapes and animal names for young children (and I can certainly understand and applaud the Caldecott Honour designation award to author/illustrator Lois Ehlert), mainly as a read aloud of course, but Color Zoo would naturally also be delightful and engaging for children to explore on their own, as it is just the right size for exploring and curious little hands, and as a board book, children can not only observe the shapes and colours, but feel the raised configurations, touch them, repeatedly trace their contour lines.

And yes, I especially appreciate how the geometric shapes become increasingly complex as Color Zoo progresses (from a simple circle to more complex shapes such as a hexagon and octagon), and actually but in indeed also with a bit of frustration I kind of do wish that Lois Ehlert had equally done this with regard to the animal shapes (and names) designated and depicted in Color Zoo, moving from simple to more involved and complex offerings (as the animals do feel a bit haphazardly chosen, with complex and simple examples curiously intermingled, but that is a minor and likely even a rather personal issue).

Finally, a small but in my opinion also important caveat that due to the interactive nature of Color Zoo, I would tend to ONLY recommend the board book format. For with traditional hardcover or paperback editions of Color Zoo, pages could easily become loose, bent, ripped and torn by eager and exploring toddler hands (and considering that this is what children are actually supposed to in my opinion be doing with Color Zoo, it would in fact and indeed be almost a bit of a potential trap to not give them the board book, as with the other formats, even with gentle interactive usage, some damage will or at least likely could occur).

[Ellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have fond memories of sharing this book with my children when they were babies. Ehlert was a favorite of ours. This is a fun book for little ones, discovering the shapes, and a pleasant one to read to them for adults with the bright pictures and beautiful colors.

[Luisa Knight · Rating 3 out of 5]

I admit - I thought this book would be boring. But it was actually kind of fun to see the shapes turning into animals - very clever. Your kids will love learning shapes and colors with this.

Ages: 2 - 6

Here’s our book favs on color: watch my reel!

Content Considerations: nothing to note.

**Like my reviews? Then you should follow me! Because I have hundreds more just like this one. With each review, I provide Content Considerations, mentioning any objectionable content I come across so that parents and/or conscientious readers (like me) can determine beforehand whether they want to read a book or not. Content surprises are super annoying, especially when you’re 100+ pages in, so here’s my attempt to help you avoid that!

If you’re considering a book or looking for a new title to read, check out my highly categorized shelves, read my reviews and Friend or Follow me to spiff up your feed with clean, wholesome, living books.

I have an Instagram account that’s pretty bookishly unique too!

[Helen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic work of art for all children! I am amazed by the way the author made one animal change into another through the use of a few lines! Great for color analysis by older children, as well, using the color chart near the end.

[Torrie Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is fun to use in the classroom because the animals that are in the book are made out of shapes. The kids love to put the shapes together and see hoe the animals are made. I think this book is appealing to children because the shapes are cut out and not just on a paper. This way the students can use their touch and feel around the cut out of each shape.

[Cheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Watched on youtube. Exuberantly educational, and I *might* have enjoyed it as a child. But I'm not sure children can recognize the animals shown... - ? And I would have preferred that it stick to geometric shapes, as 'heart' is distracting and will not show up in class when the child is older.

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remember reading this with my children when they are little. It's perfect for toddlers and preschoolers and introduces colors, shapes and animals. Bright, interactive and engaging.

[Jessica Emly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Color Zoo, by Lois Ehlert, is a creative book that introduces children to a variety of shapes and colors by using them to create animals. The thick and brightly colored pages feature cut-outs of shapes that allow one animal to transform seemingly into another with just the turning of a page. A tiger becomes a mouse and a goat becomes a snake, all by changing just one shape. Although there isn't much storyline to speak of, the book is a bold and engaging demonstration about the power of colors and shapes in our world, and children will be amazed to see some of their favorite animals trasnform into others right in front of their eyes. The book closes with a recap of all the shapes and colors used and the animals that we were able to create with them. This book could easily be incorporated into a Kindergarten class -- particularly a math lesson about shapes comes to mind. Students could even create their own zoo animals just like the ones in the book using shape cut-outs. Overall, a fun and unique approach to learning about shapes and colors!

[Elizabeth Gonzalez · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the book because it introduces children to many educational information. The storyline of the book is about shapes and colors that form an animals in the zoo. The author uses the shapes to form a tiger on the first page then the next it shows you the tiger face that forms by a circle and it has a blue color to make the circle stick out the image the book goes on like that. At the end of the book all the shapes colors and animals are listed. The book is supporting linguistic skills and eye coordination because they are able to look at the images and know that its a tiger or look at the shape or even colors. I think children would have a positive respond to the book because they can be part of the book because they can be part of the reading just by looking at the illustration. As I read out loud I would emphasize the shapes that are used to create the animal. I would ask the student if they know what type of sounds the animals make.

[Beverly · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a unique educational book for very young children. The colors are very vivid and bright; the animals stylized. In the back of the book, after all the die-cut shapes, there is one page with each shape and its name; one page with each color and its name; and one page with each stylized animal and its name. Very useful.

[Victoria Nesselroad · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this book it is about shapes and colors in the zoo near you and it shows you a lot of things that you can do. It even talks about different parts like heads and wars. Then it tells you what kind of noise that the animal makes.

I would use it to draw your own animal or just to talk about zoo animal that are at a zoo and see what the kids like the most and make them draw it or something.

[Viviane Elbee · Rating 4 out of 5]

This would be a great book to use for art activities because it shows how to draw different animals using simple shapes.

It is not a story - it’s a shape (and animal) concept book. Appropriate for babies and toddlers, it could also be used in preschool & elementary for art & craft activity inspiration.

Very quick read that the kids enjoyed.

[SaraKat · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very nice book that helps children learn their colors and shapes while learning about how those shapes can make up the faces of different creatures. This book is great for budding artists since it helps them see how shapes can combine to make more complex pictures. There isn't much to actually read, but it is fun to look at.

[Diana · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is brilliantly created! No story at all, but the kiddos were fascinated by the changing shapes and colors and how they created new animals. Kinda reminded me of "Go Away, Big Green Monster" in the way the cut-outs changed the picture on every page. Excellent choice for one-on-one exploration of colors, shapes, or animals. Highly recommended.

[SamZ · Rating 4 out of 5]

1990 Caldecott Honor - Favorite Illustration: The snake hexagon page - so fun!
A very simple book about the concepts of colors and shapes, but presented in a fun way - using shapes to build different animals. This would be a great book to use for toddlers and preschoolers!

[Anne Miranda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lois Ehlert was represented by Kirchoff/Wohlberg, where my mother was managing editor. I got to see this book in dummy form before it was published, which was a huge life-time treat. It's a brilliantly designed book and it's no wonder everyone loves it. A must have for early readers.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Colorful and imaginative book for babies and toddlers.

[Kaethe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yeah, anyone can draw a cute cartoonish character, but it takes genius to put together a board book like this. The bright colors, the geometric shapes, the simple graphic animals. Love it!

[Shawn Deal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here is a fun, creative book showing kids how you can make pictures of animals using collars and basic geocentric shapes. Would be very great to use in a young persons art lesson.

[Allison Faught · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very creative and cute book to teach kids animals and shapes!

[Mandi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I used this book for our kindergarten study of goats. Each page is of an animal using only true shapes- like the goat is made of an octagon, hexagon, triangle, & circles. We then did an art project of creating our own goat on paper using a triangle, semi-circles, & circles. The book made for a good tool.

[Gabi Loveday · Rating 5 out of 5]

From the outside, _Color Zoo_ appears to be a simple picture book for very young readers, but after opening its pages, I found that it was far more complex and engaging than I expected it to be. I loved that Ehlert took simple shapes and arranged them to create more complex figures like animals, and this certainly seemed like a book I would have loved to had as a child with its bright colors and artwork. This book, which won a Caldecott Honor in 1990, is absolutely perfect for children starting as young as babies to pick up and begin “reading”—while it’s not completely a wordless picture book, Ehlert uses basic shapes and simple cut outs that even a really young child can likely recognize and explore, and children don’t have to read the words to be able to identify the shapes, animals, and colors. Not only does in encourage basic academic learning, but it also encourages creativity and spatial skills as well. Staying true to the intended audience, Ehlert uses only primary colors such as blue, purple, green, red, and orange, and uses bold and vivid versions of these color on what appears to most likely be whole colored pages (most likely computer ink or thick, oil based paint, with each shape die-cut out of the middle. By using intense and distinct colors, Ehlert ensures that readers can learn the difference between each color in its most basic, recognizable shade. The cut-outs are interactive, but also help teach basic shapes. For example, as you open the book, you see the image of a tiger, formed by overlaying a cut out of a circle, on top of a die cut square, on top of a cut out triangle. As you turn each page, the shapes combine to make different animals, such as a mouse and fox, and Ehlert was incredibly creative in how she simplified the facial shape and features of each animal into basic, recognizable shapes (the tiger’s face is round, the fox’s face is triangle, etc.). I think young readers will be fascinated by all of the animals, and the idea that individual shapes that they may already know can combine to form more detailed pictures. In my opinion, this would be a great book to read at home or in a classroom of young students before craft time; the pictures and cutouts are arranged in such a simplistic and achievable way that I think children will be inspired by and can try and imitate or make their own animals out of shapes.

[Angelina Cicero · Rating 5 out of 5]

Color Zoo by Lois Ehlert is one of the best learning books I have come across! This award winning book takes children's love for animals and makes it educational. This book supports linguistic skills and eye coordination because the children need to look at the illustrations closely and think. Ehlert makes the setting for this book inside a zoo, where it introduces colors and shapes. I love how the Typography in the book done by Betty Rossner is big and bold. That font really stands out to the reader. This book goes well with the age group 4-8 because when a child reads this book for the first time, they are seeing new information. He/She will need time to learn and memorize the shapes and types of of animals. In possibly third grade when they look back on a shape or animal and is asked "How many sides does a circle have?" he/she will be able to answer no sides because a visual imagine of the shape from when they saw it in the book will come into their head.

The medium for this book i would hypothesize, is digital art. I say that because the book is pretty cut out like and the illustrations are made out of shapes. The font is digital looking as well. The artwork is pretty cut out like and it makes it easier for a child to remember what they saw. The cover of this book is very vibrant. The purple that is chosen is very pretty, and on the cover there is a fox made out of shapes with a big font. That is basically everything i talked about above. When you look at the cover you could go " oh! this book" and so on.

An activity i could do in the classroom with is book is arts and crafts. I could lay out a whole bunch of shapes we saw from the book and the children could carefully pick out shapes and create an animal they remember seeing. All in all, Color Zoo is a fantastic learning book i recommend having in the classroom!

[Dolly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun book for younger children that combines vibrant colors and shape cutouts to create images of animals. It's a short, entertaining book, but many of the animals are a bit abstract and would likely be hard for a younger child to identify.

I can see the appeal of this book, but I prefer the cutout shapes and bright colors featured in Ed Emberley's Go Away, Big Green Monster! much better.

This book was selected as one of the books for the August 2016- Caldecott Honor discussion at the Picture-Book Club in the Children's Books Group here at Goodreads.

[Carly Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

This concept book discussing shapes, colors, and numbers was so much fun to read. Ehlert uses vibrant, neon colors and different shapes on each page to show individual aspects that come together to create a different picture. What is best about this book is its ability to use its subject to teach how perspective can change depending on the point of view, which means I think it could work for a variety of ages. It seems a little advanced for younger children, but it has enough to look at it that it can capture attention and be used to teach different lessons as the child grows. For example, one can start by using it as a book to show colors, then work up to talking about shapes, then animals, then perspective. The book also contains a comprehensive list of all the colors, shapes, and animals at the end, and this can allow for a breakdown of the book's contents for a different conversation.

[Reham Alfaraj · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is ingenious in the way the author uses cut-outs to form shapes of different animals and then builds upon those primary shapes (starts out with circles, square, triangle) by using more complex shapes (hexagon, rectangle, etc.) to form images of other animals, while reinforcing the shapes used to form the animal image from the previous page. It is a great book for learning about shapes, colors and animals. The cut-outs in the pages that change the animal shown on each page are really clever and add an element of peek-a-boo for little readers. The bright colors and simple shapes plus the simple text really make this a good book for self-exploration by babies and toddlers, i think it is fun and interactive when adults read it to babies as well. it is a classic book that every little library should have and i'm planning to bring it to my little sister as a gift

[Ashlea · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was not my favorite as far as concept books go. It is very simple and very bright almost too bright. The book introduces shapes in the form of animals which to me could be distrating because all kids love animals and would be more interested in the animals instead of learning the shapes that the book is trying to introduce/teach. This is a board book so the children can touch and feel the different shapes and animals since each shape and animal is created by cut outs in the pages. This could be helpful for students who can not see well or need more of a hands on experience when it comes to learning. Again, I was not a fan and would either use a different book or method to introduce or teach the concept of shapes to my children/students.

[Katie Fitzgerald · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have a love/hate relationship with Lois Ehlert’s artwork. Some of her books just don’t work for me, and others are very impressive. This one falls on the impressive side. Ehlert takes two important preschool concepts, colors and animals, and combines them in a book that looks simple, but operates on several levels. For the youngest readers, it’s an early lesson in knowledge of shapes and animal sounds. As kids age, it becomes inspiration for a fun art project. Though I haven’t done so yet, I’d love to do a story time with this book, Perfect Square, and My Heart is Like a Zoo. They’d be a great combination!

[Abbey Norton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Color Zoo- Ehlert
This book contains a lot of rhyming words which makes it good for being read aloud to the students or for students who are reading it independently. The pages all have cutout shapes that form different animals. This makes it excellent for a preschooler or Kindergartner who is just learning basic shapes and animals. Another thing this book is great at is teaching students how parts make a whole. It breaks down all the different shapes that come together to make the animal. After reading the book there are pages at the end that list all of the colors, shapes, and animals that were the inspiration for the “zoo.”