A Wild Day at the Zoo (Little Polyglot Adventures, Book 2)

By: Victor Dias de Oliveira Santos
Illustrator: Eszter Miklós
Publisher: Linguacious
Publication Date: September 2020
ISBN: 978-1649620439
Reviewed by: Holly Connors
Review Date: November 2020

A fun day at the zoo turns into a crazy adventure full of excitement in the newest book in the “Little Polyglot Adventures” series by Victor D.O. Santos.

Siblings Dylan and Isabella are super excited to be going to the zoo. It is a special day, a once-in-a-lifetime kind of day because the zoo has designated it as a day when visitors can bring their own pets to the zoo. Most people bring their dogs, or cats, or other common animals while one family brings their ferret. But Dylan and Isabella steal the show by bringing Kiki, Dylan’s adorable pet chicken that he received for his last birthday. Kiki is just as excited as Dylan and Isabella. What a day it will be!

Stopping at the zoo’s gift shop, the kids’ parents buy Kiki a special backpack so she can “ride” on Dad’s back, while Isabella gets a soap bubble machine. Next it’s off to visit all the amazing zoo animals.

Isabella decides they should first visit the Africa section of the zoo. She tells her dad what types of animals live in Africa and he’s quite impressed. “Wow!” he exclaims. Then he asks the kids what else they know about the animals that live in Africa. They impress him with their knowledge, check out the animals, and then the family heads to the next section of the zoo.

When the family gets to the giraffe enclosure, they’re thrilled to meet a friendly giraffe who is quite curious about Kiki. The adorable chicken, however, isn’t so sure about the giraffe. Dad, thinking that this is the perfect time to get some pictures, puts Kiki, still in her backpack, down on a bench. And that’s when the inquisitive giraffe makes her move. When Dad turns his attention back to the giraffe enclosure, he’s startled to see poor Kiki running around the enclosure with the giraffe following close behind. A quick thinking Isabella may be Kiki’s only hope...

A Wild Day at the Zoo is indeed a wild and fun adventure story. Dylan and Isabella, the children at the center of the story, are sweet and curious, and their eagerness to learn is inspiring. They also speak several languages, English, Portuguese to their dad, Ukrainian to their mom, and Isabella even hopes to learn “dogenese” one day so she can speak to dogs. The author uses words from different languages in several places (with footnotes translating the words), and visitors to the zoo are representative of many different cultures. It’s a nice detail to an already creative story. Kiki’s rescue comes at the hands of a quick thinking Isabella which adds another nice element. The illustrations are lovely, with Kiki and her adorable expressions as the highlight. Wrap it all up and this is a charming book that should be on your child’s bookshelf.

Quill says: A Wild Day at the Zoo is indeed a culturally and linguistically diverse wild adventure that kids will love.

For more information on A Wild Day at the Zoo (Little Polyglot Adventures, Book 2), please visit the website: www.linguacious.net