Little Library Bookshelf: Gorilla Reads

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Is your summer reading list getting boring or repetitive? I know the feeling! With three kids doing summer reading and working on our 1000 Before Kindergarten I need to make an effort to increase the variety of what we are reading or my kids would read the same books over and over again- which isn’t a bad thing! Our old city library used to have this great book they created where you could look up a subject your child was into and it would list off their favorite picture books. It was a great way to find new books that I knew my kids would enjoy.

My two year old absolutely loves Gorillas. She calls them GuhGuhs, and for a while, all she wanted to read was GuhGuh Books. So these are our favorite and some future favorite reads all about Gorillas!

Gorilla Books

By far, the prettiest Gorilla Books are Anthony Browne’s. One Gorilla is his newest, and we read it daily. It counts to ten with different primates, and the drawings are magnificent! Of course, the classics of Goodnight Gorilla and Little Gorilla are in heavy rotation.  Julius and Good Morning Gorilla are on our future reads list. My oldest has read all the books in the Magic Treehouse Series and loves them. I have a new reader, so we will be tackling those with her next.

Here are the summaries from our Library System to give you a feel for which one you want to try!

• Little Beauty by Anthony Browne: When a gorilla who knows sign language tells his keepers that he is lonely, they bring him a very special friend.
• Little Gorilla by Ruth Bornstein:  Little Gorilla’s family and friends try to help him overcome his special growing pains.
• Good Night Gorilla by Peggy Rathmann: An unobservant zookeeper is followed home by all the animals he thinks he has left behind in the zoo.
• Julius by Syd Hoff: An unobservant zookeeper is followed home by all the animals he thinks he has left behind in the zoo.
• Good Morning, Gorillas {Magic Treehouse #26} by Mary Pope Osborne: An unobservant zookeeper is followed home by all the animals he thinks he has left behind in the zoo.
• Gorilla! Gorilla! by Jeanne Willis: While searching for her missing baby, a mother mouse comes upon a big, scary gorilla. She runs away, but the gorilla chases her, no matter where she runs.
• Gladys Goes Out to Lunch by Derek Anderson: Gladys the gorilla is tired of eating nothing but bananas, until the day she smells something wonderful that lures her from the zoo in search of a new treat. Includes a recipe for banana bread.
• One Gorilla by Anthony Browne: Learn to count with a variety of primates–gorillas, gibbons, mandrills, and others.
• The Painting Gorilla by Michael Rex: A gorilla who lives in a zoo and loves to paint becomes rich and famous for her art and asks the other animals what she should do with her money.
• Me Jane by Patrick McDonnell: In his characteristic heartwarming style, Patrick McDonnell tells the story of the young Jane Goodall and her special childhood toy chimpanzee named Jubilee. As the young Jane observes the natural world around her with wonder, she dreams of “a life living with and helping all animals,” until one day she finds that her dream has come true. With anecdotes taken directly from Jane Goodall’s autobiography, McDonnell makes this very true story accessible for the very young–and young at heart.

Does your kid have a favorite Gorilla book? Is there a subject you would love us to cover and help you find more books on? Leave a comment below and tell us!

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