Zip Goes Zebra

Sweet Pickles #26

by Richard Hefter

Zebra annoys the residents of Sweet Pickle with his unconventional behavior.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Fiction, Animals

Hardcover

First published February 1, 1978

About the author

Richard Hefter met children's author Jacquelyn Reinach in 1975. He was contracted at the time to write 26 books for the publishers Holt. After the contract expired he formed a publishing venture, Euphrosyne, with Reinach.

He is known as the creator of Stickybear and as the co-creator (with Reinach) and illustrator for the Sweet Pickles[1] library of books, and for the Strawberry Library of First Learning. The Sweet Pickles series went on to sell 40 million copies. Hefter described his aim as "trying to help children understand things like shyness, laziness and embarrassment in a humorous way."

Reviews

[Calista · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can relate to Zebra in some ways. He likes doing things different from everyone else and being a character. In other Sweet Pickles stories who does have some wisdom doing this. He likes to eat under the table and wear a tie on his tail or he zips down the road on a unicycle doing a handstand.

I have to admit that I love these Sweet Pickles books. I didn’t get to read them as a kid, but they are still a great story to read. We like to read these books in the summer at our house. I have a few more to post later from this summer. There are about 10 more that I haven’t found. I’m hoping to do all 26 of them eventually. It’s a family tradition at this point.

Zebra is a funny character too and while Alligator and Dog don’t approve of him, the kids thought he was very funny. The niece listened in on this as she said it’s more fun to read it together than read it alone. She gave this zany character 5 stars and the nephew gave this 4 stars. He laughed at Zebra, but he said that Fish is better.

[Yates Marie · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book has several different animals in it. I do not like some of the language that the book uses. There are negative words in it that students could possibly learn and use against other students in the class. I like the pictures, but I would probably not read this to my class unless I was talking about not nice words to use. You can make this a book about bullying due to the negative names some people are called.

[Karen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm sure I used to like Sweet Pickles but now that I'm reading them to Eleanor and Peter I realise they have far too many words and the morals aren't all that well underlined. Pig thinks Pinks has to be the best one anyway, though Zip goes Zebra gets a firm second for reminding me of Ellen.

[Amanda Hicks · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm pretty sure this is one of the most pointless children's books I have read this year.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Leonard had all 26 Sweet Pickles books as a boy. His mother gave them to my brother, Kristopher when we got married. This summer my mom got them out for us to take home. Unfortunately, they wouldn't fit in our suitcases, so we decided to keep them at Gramma's house to read when we visit. And this year we did just that and read all 26 of them. They're cute little stories, with cute little morals. Kaleb, Noe, and Gavin all thought they were great!

[Pewterbreath · Rating 3 out of 5]

I always loved the sweet pickles books! I wanted to own every one (of course I didn't) but I owned this one---they're just fun.

[April Scheivelhud · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very fun and unusual colorful book. Zebra marches to the beat of his own drum, and his friends wonder why. In the end, it is okay to be yourself (or different).

[Maggie Mattmiller · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great talking points in this one. Will use in my teaching!