Miffy Goes to the Zoo

A pull-tab and play book

Illustrations by Dick Bruna (Egmont)
ISBN: 978-1-4052-4062-8

Fewer and fewer people read these days. Especially kids. My wife told me a story of a friend (no kids yet) who recently bought a little girl a book for her birthday. The other mothers frowned and tutted. One kind soul offered to let her go halves on her own gift: nightmare-inducing, giant-headed fashion dolls wearing salacious outfits and hooker make-up. They were all tragically correct. The book, a golden classic of childhood, lay all but unwrapped, a single torn corner of shiny paper revealing it to be words on paper, not plastic or metal or electronic.

In a world with so many flashing distractions children now need to be seduced into reading – and that as soon as possible. Miffy Goes to the Zoo is a pop-up book for the very young based on Dick Bruna’s classic little girl-rabbit character.

When the first book Miffy Goes to the Zoo was published in 1955 Miffy (or Nijntje as she is in the original Dutch) was rendered much more realistically, but Bruna, a relentless perfectionist, refined his creation continually and by 1963 the almost abstract minimalist version we all know was finalised and the book was reissued with the artwork altered. It is this version that the pop-up book is based on.

Bruna has produced over 100 books with sales of over 80 million world-wide, Nijntje has more than thirty titles across the planet in 40 languages and the little rabbit is a global brand with toys, games, TV shows, and everything else you’d expect from such a household name.

The book themselves are 16 pages of verse and primary coloured illustration, designed small to fit the hands of children (the target audience is 4-8 year olds) and with topics children know or might experience such as schools, hospitals or shopping. In the award winning Dear Grandma Bunny (1997) Bruna even tackled loss and bereavement in a tale where Miffy’s grandmother passes away. Of especially interest here, some books such as Miffy’s Dream have no text at all, using pictures alone to carry the narrative – a perfect training ground for future comics readers.

This version has all the charm and simple beauty of the 1963 book, and the physical animations are absolutely amazing, pop-up, fold-outs, rotating images and hidden surprises and, mercifully, no electronic voices, bleeps or sound effects to distract from what is still essentially a reading device for contemplation. This kind of traditional innovation wedded to a trusted character brand is vital to getting kids hooked on books.

Perhaps if that well-meaning but naive lady had taken this along instead there might have been a less embarrassing outcome at the birthday party.

It’s never too late…

© Mercis bv, 1953-2008. Licensed by Mercis Publishing bv, Amsterdam. All Rights Reserved.