School Library Journal (Fri Jun 01 00:00:00 CDT 2012)

PreS-Gr 2 Sierra and Brown are back with their third title featuring amiable zoo animals. This time these denizens are all having babies, all except the tree kangaroo and the pandas. Even though some parents say that the babies are bothersome, none of them will give theirs up to the childless ones. When a van from Animal Rescue delivers an endangered egg, all of the birds refuse it, but the tree kangaroo offers her pouch. After a while a baby penguin hatches. The kangaroo loves it completely but acknowledges that she needs help raising it. Penguins eat fish and that is not something she is capable of supplying. The other animals are happy to lend a hand. That leaves the pandas as the only childless couple. A small kitten finds Ms. Panda and quickly adopts her. And again the other animals pitch in with Mama Tiger providing milk for the little one. This is an upbeat adoption story. The punch line is, "Every kid needs a family, we know that it's true./And to bring up a baby&30; it takes a whole zoo!" The joyful illustrations feature the same pointy-faced animals as in the two previous books. The pictures are done with watercolor, gouache, and colored pencils on wood panels. Fans of Wild About Books (2004) and ZooZical (2011, both Knopf) will flock to this one as well. Ieva Bates, Ann Arbor District Library, MI

Kirkus Reviews

In lively rhyming couplets that beg to be read aloud, Sierra's zoo animals are back, this time proving that it takes a village zoo to raise children…especially when those children are adopted. The new batch of zoo babies finds the tree kangaroo and the panda couple bemoaning their lack of offspring. But while the crocodiles list all the reasons why babies are awful ("mountains of poo" are mentioned), they simply cannot give their children to the pandas, since they "LOVE THEM COMPLETELY." The tree kangaroo jumps at the opportunity to tuck a mystery egg into her pouch to hatch. Her penguin chick, while not what she expected or dreamed of, is just perfect. Meanwhile, the still-childless pandas get a surprise of their own in the form of a stray kitten. Both of the new little families are tenderly watched over by the other zoo inhabitants. The "pandacat" and "pengaroo" are each the answer to their parents' wishes, as is more than evident from both the text and Brown's watercolor, gouache and colored-pencil illustrations. Bright colors and bold patterns fill the pages, but the true stars are the animals, whose mutual affection shines through on every page. While human adoptions may never be this random and unexpected (and have been covered by the likes of Jamie Lee Curtis and Rose Lewis), this nicely captures the cross-species bonds animals sometimes form. (Picture book. 4-8)

Horn Book (Mon Apr 01 00:00:00 CDT 2013)

When the zoo animals start having babies, two pandas and a tree kangaroo bemoan their childless state. Soon, however, the three find themselves with families that aren't what they expected. Sierra's rhymes include plenty of surprises; Brown's illustrations feature a gently colored palette and little patterns. Like the duo's Wild About Books, this title is good both for group sharing and as a bedtime story.

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

Sierra and Brown return to Springfield Zoo in this baby-themed follow-up to Wild About Books and ZooZical. Sierra-s couplets are as sharp and witty as ever, with a distinct Seussian vibe. Watching other animals with their offspring, a tree kangaroo and a panda couple announce that they want babies, too. When a rescue worker arrives with an endangered egg, the tree kangaroo volunteers to hatch it, and the pandas adopt a small orange kitten. The other animals pitch in to help the adoptive parents, proving that -It takes a whole zoo- to raise a baby. Working in the same angular, heavily patterned style of the previous books, Brown offers active yet comforting spreads of the animals with their children (one scene invites readers to find the zoo babies that have wandered off). Sierra hints at parenthood-s more trying moments, yet what resonates loudest is unconditional love: -Penguins don-t fly. Penguins never sing sweetly,- says the tree kangaroo to the newborn chick. -But that doesn-t matter. I love you completely!- Furthermore, the mixed-species adoptions quietly affirm the value of families in all their varieties. Ages 4-8. (Aug.)