This year’s Book Week theme is Curious Creatures, Wild Minds. At MiniZoo we have plenty of options of curious creatures, and if you think they’re not so curious, then all we have to do is open our books and our imaginations and the opportunities are endless. Everyone loves dressing up for Book Week, but there are other ways to celebrate. Bookish play is a great way to get involved with Book Week if your kids are too little for school, or you want to celebrate at home as well as at school. My daughter is too young for school but LOVES books so we’re preparing for Book Week at home. I’ve outlined 3 books we’re playing with that highlight this year’s theme.

Possum Magic (by Mem Fox)

This Australian classic story-time favourite is one my daughter frequently picks out, and it perfectly embodies the Book Week theme. Hush and Grandma Poss are certainly curious creatures, and their adventures make bookish play lots of fun. MiniZoo’s Mountain Brushtail Possum by Southlands Replicas makes the perfect Hush and the Large Leadbeaters Possum by Science and Nature is a great Grandma Poss.

We also used the Common Wombat by Schleich for the blue wombat, though we decided not to make him blue as the story goes, and instead use our imaginations. The Science and Nature Small Kookaburras but again, we imagined the magic pink colouring. The Safari Dingo is the perfect dingo for the story because, out of the handful of dingo figures we stock, this one looks like it could be smiling, just like in the story. The Southlands Replicas Emu Male is a beautifully sculpted emu if you want a good size. If you want to follow along in the story and find a smaller emu that’s been shrunk, the Safari Land Down Under Toob and the Wild Republic Australian Nature Tube both include a small emu. The Schleich Koala is perfect to pretend to sit on an invisible Hush. The Safari Kangaroo with Joey is a great size for an invisible Hush to slide down, and the Mojo Rattlesnake is a scary looking snake, inspiring Grandma Poss to keep Hush invisible and safe from its attack.

A Giraffe in the Bath (by Mem Fox & Olivia Rawson)

Clearly Mem Fox is a favourite in our house, and there are certainly some curious creatures in this amusing story. We love the rhythmic rhyme of the narration as well as the illustrative mix of animals from within Australia and the rest of the world.

For title character, I’ve chosen the Schleich Giraffe Calf. I decided to use a calf instead of an adult so that would fit in my daughter’s dolls house bath. I also included one of the Safari Mini Duckies for a rubber duck so that my giraffe foal would have a bathtime buddy. For the frog in the flour, I chose the Safari Incredible Creatures Flying Tree Frog because it looks like its jumping like the one in the book. The CollectA Sheep is perfect to take a shower, the Safari Eagle Owl could have the flu, and the Science and Nature Large Kangaroo can take a toilet break.

For the ‘Crocodile with Style’ I think the Schleich Crocodile works well, particularly with a little skateboard. The Wild Republic Anaconda Rubber Snake 42” could be the python, the Mojo Hippopotamus Female could be the hippo with a hula, and the Papo Piranhas could snuggle up into bed while wearing pyjamas (maybe some dolls clothes could work). For the remaining animals I used the Schleich Piglet and Safari Llama, the CollectA Walrus, CollectA’s new Centipede, the Mojo Indian Elephant, the Schleich Lion Cub and the Southlands Replicas Emu.

Another Book About Bears (by Laura and Philip Bunting)

This funny book sheds some light on how underappreciated bears feel about always being protagonists and how sometimes they’d simply like a break from being in stories. Apparently, the bears are fighting back and going on strike, and so a lot of this story is spent trying to find an adequate replacement character. They try many different animals instead.

This book is one of our favourites for bookish play because while many of the animals are simply mentioned, the premise of the story encourages little readers to use their imaginations and play out different stories with the many animals suggested – and MiniZoo figures are perfect for this!

The story illustrations suggest many different bears are fed up with always being in tricky situations in books, so if you’ve got a collection of MiniZoo bears, you could easily stage a protest. The main bear we’ve used is the Mojo Grizzly Bear Cub.

Other MiniZoo animals we’ve used are: Papo Elephant, Southlands Replicas Echidna, CollectA King Crab, Safari Peacock, Safari Koala, Science and Nature Large Kangaroo, CollectA Dama Gazelle, Mojo Male Cheetah and the Papo Tortoise. The Schleich Holsteiner Mare can play the horse, and the Science and Nature Magpie could be your Crow. Schleich’s Sitting Cat is the perfect colouring for the Kitten, and you can find the Common Marmoset in the Safari Primates Toob. The Papo Mole is coming soon to MiniZoo which would make the perfect star-nosed mole and Safari’s Incredible Creatures Brown Bat can be our flying fox. The CollectA Puffin makes for an acceptable dodo substitute as puffins and dodos could easily be considered cousins, and my daughter absolutely loves puffins. We’ve used a Safari Mini Snake for the Earthworm, an Anglerfish from the Safari Deep Sea Creatures Toob, the Safari Incredible Creatures Salmon (even though the salmon in the story has mysteriously gone missing – we’re looking at your Bear!), the Mojo Red Kneed Tarantula for the Spider, and for the Blobfish you could use the stonefish from the Safari Venomous Creatures Toob or the Safari Incredible Creatures Frogfish for something similar.

We hope these bookish play ideas have inspired you to embrace the Curious Creatures, Wild Minds theme at home. We’d love to see the ways you’ve used MiniZoo animals in your Book Week bookish play so please share with us on our Facebook page, VIP group, or Instagram.

MiniZoo ships worldwide and offers free shipping on qualified orders within Australia, so have a flick through your little one’s favourite books and see how we can make your bookish play happen with a huge selection of beautiful animal figures. Keep in mind that Christmas is coming up so perhaps some new figures along with a matching book might be the perfect gift that will last longer than the story solely on the pages – watch your kids’ imaginations run wild.

Jenna @ MiniZoo