A friend and I were talking penguins the other night (Penguin Town fever has taken The Barking Crow by storm), and I started listing off the different species of penguins I know about, in response to my friend saying, “It’s weird that there are so many breeds of penguins. That doesn’t look like a thing that should exist broadly.” I named about half a dozen species. Jackass. Emperor. Chinstrap. Rockhopper. Galapagos. King. I then immediately started wondering how I knew about penguin species, and as an image of a two-page illustrated section of magazine full of penguins came into my mind, I remembered Zoobooks.
Zoobooks, if you don’t recall, were grand. Legendary daytime children’s television commercial, even better product. And at a great price!
Well, they’re still around. Evidently housed under the Ranger Rick branch of the National Wildlife Federation (Ranger Rick, another thing that evidently still exists, God bless it), Zoobooks are still kicking, and they’re as much of a steal as ever. Nine issues for $15? Outragous!
There are evidently Zoobooks for the young ones, too. Or, well, the younger ones. While Zoobooks themselves are aimed at kids aged six or seven and up, Zoodinos (that’s ZooDinos, as I noticed on the eighth pass) for kids five and up, and Zootles for kids aged three to seven (roughly—one of the charming things about the Zoobooks website is the inconsistency in recommended ages for these kids, as though Zoobooks’s people have been so focused on the animal kingdom that they’ve lost their grasp on humanity).
What a buzz.
Who needs Zoobooks when we have Brian Fellow?
really regret shorting that stock in 1997. but i aint backing down now.
So happy to hear this!! We still have dozens of well-read and slightly worn copies saved for the grandkids to enjoy someday. Who knew they’d still be in print, 30 years after I first learned of them!! Hooray! Now that’s something that should unite us!