Math Games at the Zoo

Maggie Ross’s narration is the secret weapon of this audiobook. Her voice is warm and inviting, instantly putting young listeners at ease, but she doesn’t shy away from enthusiasm when the math gets tricky. She punctuates key moments with playful sound effects—trumpeting elephants, chattering monkeys—that pull kids into the story without overpowering Walsh’s clever script. I especially loved how Ross handled the transitions between scenes, shifting tone seamlessly from silly to focused. That said, the production does stumble once or twice: a couple of sound effects clip awkwardly, and the final track’s conclusion feels rushed, as if the editor’s finger slipped on the stop button. But these are minor quibbles in an otherwise polished package. The real magic happens in the math itself. Walsh doesn’t just toss numbers at kids; she ties them to real zoo scenarios, like splitting a snack between two hungry lions or calculating how many tickets the zookeeper needs to sell for the camel ride. It’s the kind of contextual learning that sticks. My 6-year-old, who usually bolts at the mention of math, asked to replay the ‘monkey snack’ chapter three times in a row. If that’s not proof this audiobook works, I don’t know what is. The only thing missing? More animals—Walsh teases a hippo or two in the closing pages, but doesn’t deliver. A sequel, perhaps?