Each month I curate a new Broccoli Box theme inspired by children's literature. The Zoo Kit was inspired by The Lending Zoo by Frank Asch. This particular story or author has roots in my childhood. Maybe you have memories of hearing Frank Asch's stories growing up, too?
Frank Asch is the author of many famous children's books including Moon Bear, Popcorn, and Sand Cake. Each of his stories take fairly normal things like the moon, popcorn, and a day at the beach and he puts a creative spin on these "normal" things. These were some of my favorite stories growing up and when I discovered Mr. Asch had written another book fairly recently I knew I had to include it with a Broccoli Box. This story does not dissappoint.
In The Lending Zoo, Frank Asch takes two seemingly normal things, a zoo and a library, and asks the question "what if?" Your children will love the silly story and it will definitely ignite their imaginations and provide a lot for your family to imagine and talk about. It is sure to spark many hours of creative play with their Zoo Sensory Kit as they dream about wild animals.
If you're not familiar with Frank Asch's other stories, I highly recommend heading to your local library, Amazon, or thriftbooks.com to get ahold of a few of his other books, because they will also become family favorites. Something Little Man and I enjoy doing is reading several of his books at a time and then thinking about how the stories are similar and how they're different. It's truly amazing what even a young child can pick up on and if your child is elementary age this would be a great excersise into an author study.
If you'd like to watch a short video where I talk about the book and share some pictures, check out this video from IGTV
View this post on Instagram
I hope your family loves The Lending Zoo as much as my family has and it becomes a treasured book in your home.