Visit to the Zoo

These sprightly pop-ups are just simple enough--and just small enough--to be suitable primers for very young animal lovers. Everything about these books, in fact, seems nicely scaled-down: the paper engineering is uncomplicated, the colors are cheerful but not too bright, the minimal text can be easily understood. Children may enjoy the zoo animals more than those on the farm, however, as various parts of each creature spring forth from the pages. The elephant's pendulous trunk, the crocodile's toothy snout, the snake's coiled body and the giraffe's extended neck will provoke gleeful responses--and repeated ``visits.'' The farm animals are depicted safe in their enclosures: the horse's stable, the pigs' pen, the rabbit's hutch. In both books, the choice of each animal's sex seems odd and somewhat arbitrary--giraffe, crocodile and rabbit are female; horse, kangaroo and elephant are male. These friendly creatures--Hellen has painted virtually all of them with big, welcoming grins--will be fun additions to any youngster's pet parade. Ages 2-5. (Sept.)