AUTHOR Rod Campbell’s ever popular lift-the-flap book Dear Zoo is being brought to life for the first time in a touring stage production that plays the Grand Opera House, York, next Monday and Tuesday.

Published by Macmillan Children’s Books in 1982, the book has sold more than eight million copies in 20 languages worldwide. Now, prompted by its 35th anniversary last year, Norwell Lapley Productions are mounting a tour that began on February 8 and will run for more than 70 dates nationwide.

Campbell's story of a child who writes to the zoo asking to be sent a pet, continues to delight each new generation of children that lifts the flaps in search of the perfect animal.

Suitable for two to six year olds, it transfers to the boards under the direction of Michael Gattrell, whose production combines puppetry with original music and audience interaction, presented by a cast that includes Molly Waters, Harrison Spiers, Aaron Spendelow and Emma Longthorne.

"I’m absolutely delighted that Dear Zoo is being brought to life on stage for the very first time," says author and illustrator Rod Campbell, an expert in early learning for pre-schoolers who has created more than 200 books encouraging children to discover and delight in the world around them.

York Press:

Dear Zoo author Rod Caompbell

"I can hardly believe that Dear Zoo has celebrated its 35th anniversary! I really am enormously touched and delighted that successive generations of young children continue to love Dear Zoo. Their obvious pleasure when interacting with it is so gratifying to see, and for me is the very greatest of compliments."

Campbell has adapted his book as Dear Zoo Live On Stage, yet Dear Zoo may never have made it to the page, let alone the stage. "When I was younger, I tried to make it as a painter. I had no money. I lived in friends’ attics, and moved ten times in eight years. I made ends meet by doing painting and decorating. It was like La Boheme," he recalls.

For the decade before the book’s publication in 1982, he was determined to succeed as a painter, with no thought of being a children’s author. "Then someone whose sister worked at a children’s publishing house saw some of my drawings," says Campbell. "I was introduced to them and asked to illustrate some simple books for the under fives. This act of kindness started me on a career in children’s books: serendipity, one could say.

"One voice in my head was saying, ‘But you’re an artist with a capital A. You can’t possibly do that’, but another voice in my head was saying, ‘Why not? It looks like great fun’. The second voice prevailed, thank goodness."

The publishers Blackie were the first to express an interest in his work and Campbell has since become one of Britain's most successful children's authors.

After marking Dear Zoo's 35th anniversary with a partnership with London Zoo, he is undertaking the new challenge of a stage adaptation at the age of 72, working in tandem with director Gattrell, lighting designer Kevin James, composer Miles Russell, set designer Ian Westbrook and costume designer Anne Hewitt.

York Press:

Emma Longthorne (Monkey), Aaron Spendelow, Harrison Spiers and Molly Waters in Dear Zoo. Picture: Victoria Macken

"It’s been a wonderful experience," says Campbell. "I've really enjoyed solving problems, and it’s been a great delight to learn something new. I’ve learned a whole new language, including phrases as simple as ‘upstage’ and ‘downstage’. When I wrote, ‘exit stage left’, a frisson ran down my spine."

Keen that the play should be faithful to the book, Campbell's adaptation plays on the thrill of opening the crates. "Children love the animals and they also love the guesswork: 'What’s in the box?'," he says.

"Children have a great curiosity about what’s behind the flap [in the book]. They love to open the flaps again and again. Of course, they know what’s behind each one, but every time they approach it as though they don’t. For every child, each time is like the first time. The pay-off in the play is that inside each crate is an animal that speaks.”

Campbell notes another reason why children enjoy Dear Zoo. "After the first time, they know that the book is completely safe. There's nothing in it that will bite them. So they can luxuriate in pretending to be scared by it," he says.

"And, of course, it ends with a puppy. That's the present at the end. You’ve gone through several unsuitable animals, and then you get to the perfect animal at the end. It’s a reward."

Norwell Lapley Productions present Dear Zoo at Grand Opera House, York, next Monday (February 26), 1.30pm and 3.30pm; Tuesday, 11am and 2pm. Box office: 0844 871 3024 or at atgtickets.com/york