Read It: Good Night, Gorilla

by Peggy Rathmann

The zookeeper says goodnight to gorilla, who silently slips the keys off the zookeeper's belt.  As the zookeeper says goodnight to all the animals, gorilla walks behind him, quietly opening the cages as he goes.  All the animals follow the zookeeper home where his wife is already asleep...

This is one of those books you can't imagine anyone would dislike.  But, with an average of 5 stars (as I suspected), out of 184 reviews on Amazon, three people gave it one star.  One of them reasoned that they didn't like seeing the animals in cages (seriously?), others that there wasn't much to the written story.  It's true, the writing is very simple, but the story that's being told goes beyond what is being said.  I would be very disappointed if every book spelled out exactly what is happening in the story.  And when I see my pre-reader proudly "reading" the book, I'm not complaining one bit. 

I highly recommend buying the boardbook version of this story.  It will be well used (especially if there happens to be a little "Goodnight Gorilla" in your family).

image via hellobigbook.com