A Whoosh for A Zoo In My Shoe on World Book Day

There’s no time like World Book Day to tap into the love young children have for reading and this was the first World Book Day outing for Jason’s latest rhyming picture book, A Zoo In My Shoe.

Several years after reading his earlier book, I Like To Put Food In My Welly, to the whole of Year 1 at his local infant school, he returned to do the same with the follow-up.

With nearly 90 children – and some of the teachers – dressed up as their favourite book characters, it didn’t take long before the first howls of laughter; my foot being so long, it pokes out of the loo always get a good reaction.

But the tiger sleeping on top of the fridge earned a second belly laugh when Jason pointed out to the children that one of their teachers was dressed as a tiger – did they think she slept on top of the fridge?

It’s this kind of surreal word-play that takes the children into wild and unexpected areas of fantasy that engage them and bring out a chorus of enjoyment.

With each chapter generating increasing waves of laughter – a pizza covered in four times of fleas and the loveliest scent being the smell of my toes being just a couple that always get a good reaction – the teachers seemed relieved when they could finally get back to the relative quiet of the classroom for some rhyming activities based on the book.

But not before Jason was given – not a round of applause, but – a “whoosh” – apparently the schools preferred way of thanking guests. But the children also had another surreal moment in store for Jason before they headed back to their classrooms.

Jason brought some of his usual props with him for the reading – including a snake and an elephant, who appear in the book, and one of his daughter’s old, pink and sparkly shoes, containing a mini wooden giraffe and gorilla – a “zoo in my shoe.” Well, completely unprompted, a dozen children – mostly boys, it has to be said, came running up to Jason after the reading, waving a shoe in his face, asking him to put the animals in them.

“Just when I thought the ‘whoosh’ was a new experience, I had loads of shoes thrust in my face. In nearly 9 months since the book came out, I’ve never had that before. It’s the first time I think I’ve been out-surrealed by the children,” laughed Jason. “It’s wonderful to see that the book is inspiring them – to be silly!”