Two By Two! At the Zoo by Beth Johnson

"Let's go to the zoo!" said Mrs. Hall.

Her group of first graders is eager to go. The school bus, with a sign saying To The Zoo, is ready to load.

At the gate to the zoo, Mrs. Hall gives them the plan for the day. She warns them not to go anywhere alone.

"Stay with your buddy!"

Together the kids move into the avian display, where Jasmin and Kendra do a good job of staying together. At the elephant compound Derek and Victor notice that the elephants are staying together as a baby elephant gets a shower bath from the trunks of two adult elephants. At the big cats exhibit, the kids spot a family of lions hanging out together. They move on to another exhibit.

"Look! Monkeys are not alone!" said Mrs. Hall.

Two monkeys wave from a branch at the kids. Everywhere they see animals two by two and three by three or  even more staying together.

And nobody gets lost on this field trip to the zoo, in Beth Johnson's At the Zoo, an early first-grade reader from the set The King School Series - First Grade Collection (60 books) (Townsend Press),

With an easy-going word count of 64 and plenty of visual cues among the drawings by Mark Weber, a diverse group of first graders take one of those "can't-miss" field trips in early childhood education. Books in the King School Series feature both Kindergarten and primary grade pre-reading and early reading primers for emergent readers. Good for classroom prep for a field trip, and for children whose classes are on-line, this book gives them an idea of what a zoo field trip is all about.

Born Free! Bug Zoo by Lisa Wheeler and Andy Harkness

BEN LOVED BUGS.
TEENY, WINGY, SPRINGY BUGS!

And that's not all! Ben loves insects, in caterpillar and creepy or beetle-y form! He loves arachnids, eight-legged creeping, jumping, and burrowing spiders, and many-legged millipedes and centipedes.

Ben loves to collect examples of as many bugs as he can find. But to collect bugs, Ben has to become a bottle collector, too. He begs for lidded bottles and juggles stacks of jars as he hauls home to house his catches.

Ben also craves to share his affection for creepy crawlers, so he decides to show off his collections for his friends.

BEN OPENED A BUG ZOO AND WAITED FOR FOLKS TO ARRIVE.

NO ONE CAME.

Ben tries adding to his attractions. More bugs! Bigger bugs! Weirder bugs! Still no one shows up to view his exhibits. Then, one moonlit night he spots a big luna moth at his window--a show-stopper with real star quality!

"YOU'LL BE MY MAIN ATTRACTION!" BEN SAID.

But then Ben notices that the moth--and his other collectibles--don't look too perky. He places fresh, green leaves inside their jars, but still they don't look happy. In fact, they look downright droopy and sad, and maybe a little bit claustrosphobic in their little glass cages.

Suddenly Ben knows what he has to do.

In author Lisa Wheeler's and artist Andy Harkness's Bug Zoo: Walt Disney Animation Studios Artist Showcase Book (Disney-Hyperion Books, 2016), it's the creepy-crawly version of Free Willie. Ben sets all his bugs free, and he feels good as he watches them joyfully fly, creep, scuttle, and crawl back to nature. But now Ben has two new problems. He still loves observing bugs. And what is he going to do with all those jars! There's just one thing to do, and the final page tells all:

HONEY 25 CENTS

Veteran author Lisa Wheeler has crafted just the right story to set off the Emmy-winning Andy Harkness' illustrative skills. Harkness, a veteran Disney film artist from Pocahontas all the way through Frozen, shows off his Disney-style chops in this book in the Studio Artist Showcase series, a picture book right for young bug fanciers and early childhood education units.

See more of Geisel Honor Award (for beginning reader books) winner Lisa Wheeler's work here.