Zebra's Umbrella

I fell in love with this book after randomly checking it out at the local library. The pictures are wonderful, the story both endearing and has a strong positive message about friendship and kindness, and my 2 year old enjoys it. Even the pages have this special texture to them that makes it feel nice to hold and easy to turn pages. After the book was returned to the library, I went on Amazon to buy our own copy.Zebra sets out his colorful umbrella and other animals come to join and no one excluded - including the lion! After book upon book about the well-meaning but scary animals (sharks, spiders, etc) that just want to be friends but everyone runs away scared until the scary animal saves the day and then everyone is magically friends, I was getting tired of the moral of the story being that you have to be a lifesaver before you can make friends. This book was refreshingly not that.This book has the zebra inviting the lion to join them despite the scared looks the other animals give, but the zebra sets firm boundaries, "but no biting us." I read the story to my child and then pause to talk about how accepting of others the zebra is and is trusting while setting appropriate boundaries. Then at the end (do children's books really have spoilers? If yes, then spoiler alert.) the zebra is asked why such a colorful umbrella and zebra replies it is so the others can find zebra.I highly recommend this book.