Dear Zoo is 30! Happy Birthday

Me and Vee were invited to the 30th birthday celebrations for the book, Dear Zoo.

Dear Zoo is a book by Rod Campbell. I remember this book being read in lower school to us. It brings back very happy memories for me personally. A classic unchanged through time which will last long into the future for the next generations of children to love

We arrived in London to be welcomed by Event organizer Sally and Fleurble, the Zoo Keeper. Fleurble is a very special Zookeeper, she's discovered the secret switch to a child's imagination, sadly most grown up's lose this button as we grow up. (I thought I found it. But it was just my eye!)

Fleuble (image credit Vee) 

Once everyone arrived we moved downstairs to our little party zone, Fleurble Gathered the children on the floor to read the story, choosing some of children to be one of the pets from the zoo. Vee was lucky to be chosen and loved to be the lion. RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWW!

Suddenly MEERKATS!

Here is a video of Fleurble earlier today!


The Zookeeper told the story in such a way that captivated the children's minds extremely well, even Vee who seems to grow bored easilly stayed sat throughout.

Rod arrived for Q&A session with questions from people on twitter and us there. I never knew he was a scientist and an artist before he wrote Dear Zoo. It turns out a friend suggested he made a children's book from seeing his artwork. 30 years down the road and we have a much loved around the world family book.
He also told us how flap books used to be a luxury and were locked away from children many years back and how he plans to go back to painting and
art soon as he's not in a while.

I also asked Rod privately what his thoughts of the eBook and educational apps avaliable were(at this point i did not know he had an app for Dear Zoo. He told me he felt apps become games to children, instead of an experience. And how he prefers books over apps.
Rod is true gentleman, very lovely person. He signed  our copy of Dear Zoo. I apologise for not thanking you for your time to talk with me. (vee was being a monster) I appriciate it none the less .


Sadly I had to rush off at 4pm to catch the last off peak train before 7pm. But it seems everyone had a fantastic day,  Huge thanks for the party celebrations. It was an amazing day.

If you love and remember Dear zoo as much as many of us do, visit the Dear Zoo pages on PanMacmillan's website for the chance to win an ipad3 with Dear Zoo app preloaded.

Also for more info on Dear Zoo or to buy a copy
Click here 

A few more photos from the day are on my MOLOME Stream


Many thanks to Rod Campbell, Sally from PanMacmillan, Fleur Alexander the storyteller, Vee for her photos (flickr link coming soon)

Also An apology. I called Rod Rob on some of my tweets today. Yes I'm an Muppet. But a truly sorry one at that.

Paul