Put Me In the Zoo

Spot

by Robert Lopshire

Illus. in color. Spot, a polka-dot leopard who can change colors and even juggle his own spots, tries to convince two children that he is special enough to be exhibited in the zoo.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Fiction, Animals, Classics, Kids, Humor

24 pages, Board book

First published August 12, 1960

About the author

Robert Lopshire wrote and illustrated the Beginner Books Put Me in the Zoo, I Want to Be Somebody New!, and New Tracks I Can Do! He died in 2002.

Reviews

[Georgia Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everything is perfect. The beat of the words is melodic. The pictures are simple and bright. The message, best of all, rings true. Finding our place in the world is hard. Sometimes, when we try hardest, we fail. But the journey is worth it to get there.

A children's book with advice for life when a creature with spots that can bounce, come off, and multiply accepts the help of two children to find a home and job.

A happy story and reminder that life needs redirection sometimes.

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

My son crawled into my lap this morning and had me read this six times in rapid succession.

Put Me in the Zoo is the story of a leopard who can change the color of his spots and desperately wants to live in the zoo. The zoo isn't having it. Eventually, some kids have the great idea of putting him in the circus. The book leaves out the part where the leopard is mistreated at the circus and winds up as dog food upon his death.

The rhyme scheme is Suessian but is not up to par with the good Doctor. Still, it kept my son occupied. I guess there's a moral in there someplace about not worrying about belonging and finding your own path.

[Nena · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Mommy Poem about "Put Me In the Zoo"

This book has 65 pages.
I feel like I've been reading it for ages.
My 1 year old asks me to read it everyday.
I have no choice but to say "Okay."
Twice a day for 2 months long;
I need wine to keep me strong.
Adding it to my Reading Challenge now.
To this, I DARE anyone to say "No way; no how."

Signed,
Mom of a Book Lover

[Mandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A funny story that helps introduce your children to colors. Your child will laugh at all the things this silly animal can do with his spots. A definite hit with my little ones.

When we got the book it came with a stuffed animal and my boys still fight over "Spot" the beloved main character of the story.

This has a great rhythm to it as well which will have you acting it out with the kids which of course will give them even more giggles.

I highly recommend this!

[Amy Mawdsley · Rating 5 out of 5]

By far my favorite Dr. Seuss book.

[Rosemary Standeven · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lovely cheery book about finding your place in life. It might not always be the place you first set your heart on, but there will be a place somewhere. Sometimes you need friends who know you best, and who value your unique skills to point you in the right direction.
A short book with gentle rhyming, and bright appealing pictures – as well as an introduction to different colours. Definitely recommended for little children.

[Blake · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Put Me in the Zoo” by Robert Lopshire is a children’s book written about an animal that wants to be in a zoo.The animal really wanted to be kept in a zoo, but when he asked the zookeepers, they said no and kicked him out. At first, he was very upset and did not understand why they would not keep him. He met the young brother and sister and he started to do tricks for them. He changed the color of his spots from red to blue to orange to green and to violet. The little boy and girl loved watching him change his spots and they kept asking him to do more. Then, the animal changed his spots to all sorts of colors and started to put them on to different things. He put some on the walls, the children, on a cat, and on the zoo. After he counted to three, all his spots were back on his body. Then he took off his spots again and began to juggle them. The young boy told the animal that he did not belong in the zoo, but belonged in a circus. The animal was very happy to have finally found a home and he ended up liking the circus a lot better.

The characters in the book are two young kids, a boy and a girl, and an animal. None of the characters have names. The kids were brother and sister. She wore a yellow dress, had a yellow bow in her hair, and had short blonde hair. The brother wore blue shorts and a blue shirt and also had short blonde hair. The animal, which looks like a mixture between a bear and a dog, was yellow with red sports.

The setting of this children’s book is at the zoo when the animal gets kicked out and the road to the circus when he is showing the children what he can do with his spots. On the ending page, they arrive at the circus and the animal is performing on stage. The author’s words go hand in hand with the illustrations in the book.

I would recommend this book to all little kids and encourage parents to read it to their younger son or daughter. It is a very good book to read before bedtime to encourage your kids happy dreams. I enjoyed this book and it was definitely a favorite of mine when I was little.

[Shelly L · Rating 5 out of 5]

Could a book be more compelling to my childhood self? Little me found every detail of this well-paced, ever-escalating plot entrancing. Let's count down the elements of delight, shall we?

5) Arresting Animals: Here, we meet an enormous, soft-furred animal who may be a bear, but who also exhibits fascinating characteristics of the big cat family. OOH!

4) Affecting Conundrum: This dear confused creature wants to go into the zoo ... why, why, sweet, silly BEARKITTY?!

3) Magic Powers: HOLD UP ... he can change his spots to any color of the rainbow and what do I love more than the colors of the rainbow all of which I've memorized?!?

2) Clever Twist: OMG ... I'M SEEING THAT MULTI-COLOR SPOTS ARE ALSO AN OPTION!

1) Surprise Ending: FTW ... the spots don't even have to stay on his body ... like an animal disco ball HE CAN MAKE THEM FLY AROUND AND EVEN CHANGE SIZE. Mic drop.

SWOOOOON. From one end to the other, I was completely knocked out by this entire situation. These lucky kids had stumbled on the exact mode of magic creature I dreamed of finding for myself one day. This was the kind of crazy excitement I wasn't ready to rule out of the realm of actual reality just yet!! Though on some level I knew, I wished myself into the world of this book with all of my little animal-magic-and-rainbow-obsessed heart. #MapMyReadingLife

[Mary Lou · Rating 5 out of 5]

I fell in love with this book as a young girl, jealous that my friend owned it. It is a fun, whimsical, rhyming book that I never tire of reading. Last night I had my grand daughter read it to me, and she loved the swinging rhythm of the words. The story it tells is of finding one's place in life, and being confident in the talents that God has given us. Sometimes it just takes time to find the best match for our abilities.

[Margaret Chind · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one is new to me, but I'm delighted to have stumbled across it. I always hear about three or four color illustration books but this is a really neat way to accomplish that. Fun as an early reader and fun for 'rhymes a little bit too. Definitely will read many times more.

[Gem · Rating 5 out of 5]

A forgotten childhood favorite I rediscovered with my granddaughter at the library. So much fun.

[Lillie Gillihan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Put me in the zoo by Robert Lopshire. Will you put me in the zoo no you don't belong here. If they would put me in the zoo if they could see what I can do. I can take my spots off. I can put them in a box. I take them out they look like spots. I like the book because of this.

[Morgan's Endless Bookshelf · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm really not sure why they wouldn't put him in the zoo in the first place.

[James Hoffman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't know what Spot is. I don't know where he comes from. If you are looking for reason, I can tell you this book doesn’t have it. But what it does have is a creature with a very particular set of skills, skills it has acquired per a very unimaginative author. Skills that make this book a nightmare for people who are colorblind. If you don't read this book, then that'll be the end of it. It will not look for you, it will not pursue you. But if you do read it, it will confound you, it will change color for you, and it will not be confined to a zoo.

[Curtis Edmonds · Rating 4 out of 5]

You really want to get the board book on this, because the board book is condensed quite a bit. Frankly, the antics of the multi-spotted cougar get annoying after a while - there's just too much repetition. It's an OK kid's book, not much more than that, and the primary purpose is in identifying the colors on the cougar (if that's what it is). The board book concentrates on that, and it's much shorter and that much better.

Having said that, this is a near-perfect look at what you need to do in a job interview. The main character has a dream job, and that is to be a zoo animal. He does exactly the wrong thing - he shows up at the zoo one day, and says "I want to be in here with you." The zookeepers say that they do not want him in the zoo. "Out you go! Out! Out with you!" And if you're looking for work, you've probably heard that or something like it. A lot.

What the cougar does next is what he should have done in the first place - he shows off all his skills, which involve the coloring and manipulation of his spots. But he shows them to what looks like the wrong person - a boy and a girl who happen to be there. It turns out, though that the boy is smarter than the cougar, and gives him a valuable piece of career advice.

"Oh, they would put me in the zoo if they could see what I could do," says the cougar. (Maybe he's a leopard.) But they didn't see what he could do because he didn't show them. You have to do that. You have to show them, or they won't know. That's the lesson of "Put Me In The Zoo," and that's a good lesson for job-seekers.

[Denise · Rating 5 out of 5]

Text-to- World Connection

The main character in this book initially wants to be a part of the zoo, but after being rejected by the zookeeper he questions their decision. He proves his diversity by displaying his abilities such as changing the colors, shapes, size, and position of his spots. I would use this book to teach diversity and relay the message that despite our differences we all have purpose and deserve to be respected and treated equally. As a shared reading experience I would ask my students questions about the events in the book such as how do you think the main character felt when he was kicked out of the zoo? and how would that make you feel if it happened to you? As an extension of our shared reading I would have my students rewrite the ending of the book. After rewriting the story ending we would share our stories.
I really like this book because it addresses the ongoing issues with diversity that society is continuously battling. While using the main elements of poetry- rhyme, rhythm, and repetition this book presents a very important topic on a level that is easily understood by children.

[Ciera · Rating 5 out of 5]

Put Me in the Zoo, was and still is, handsdown, my favorite picture book. EVER. My mother read this book to me so many times, that I would know if she didn't finish the page, and I knew exactly what needed to be said, on each specific page. My mother could read it with her eyes closed, and would know exactly when to turn the page, and I would "read" it upside down, and sideways. I never realized when I was younger that this book would be considered poetry, but being older now, I do think that it is. It has a rhyming scheme that nobody would be able to doubt, and a fun story plot that any child would love :)

[Cookie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nick liked that he could read it aloud. Matt liked the pictures and was interested when the kids wore the spots. Many of these beginner readers really have lasted the test of time (Suess, Are you my Mother?, Go Dog Go, etc), but this particular one mentions that the loveable spotty animal might be best suited for the circus.

No animal is suited for the circus. And though I'm not fanatical about abolishing them (perhaps I should be), that little point certainly dampens the story for our household.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book as a kid. It was one of my favorites and I just re read it since I’m giving it as a gift and I still liked it a lot compared to some of the others I re read. I liked all the color changes and movement of the spots as a kid and it made it a bit more interesting than some of the others to me now.

[Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I somehow missed this book as a child, but I love discovering it now. A bear like creature really wants to be in the zoo. He can do tricks with his spots. They are amazing. This easy reader picture book has a cadence similar to Green Eggs and Ham, and a story as fun.

[Chrissy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alex got a bunch of these little board books for Christmas, so we finally have some new material to help us through our 1000 Books Before Kindergarten goal! This one is a favorite - love all the fun colors and the silly situations.

[Belise Michel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a great tool to use to talk about colors, over, under, in, out, and on. You can also use it to build a young reader vocabulary.

[Mackenzie Putvin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this book is great. This should be a book that every home owner has in their collection.

[Frankie S · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book! I read almost the whole book by myself!

[Anthony · Rating 3 out of 5]

A polka dot leopard wants to be put in the zoo, but the zoo keepers don't let him in. The leopard then tries to convince two children all that he can do, and the children come up with a perfect solution.

[Carly MJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute book to use about colors.

[Igor · Rating 4 out of 5]

After finishing reading to my son, he kept repeating 'put me in the zoo'...

[Derek Eicholz · Rating 3 out of 5]

mid, twist at the end was decent though

[mara jade · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the better ones I’ve read while babysitting!!!

[Virginia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This has always been one of my favorite Suess books and a real favorite with the boy, too. Now he’s in Kindergarten and can read this book all by himself, so I like it even more.