I know many of you may be wondering what Zylie and Friends is all about.  Zylie is a young Kodiak Bear that goes on many adventures around the world.  She comes with her own story book about her adventure.  Zylie has met friends along her way and one of those friends just happens to be named Shen.  He is a Panda that Zylie met in China!  Shen comes with a great stylish outfit, a passport, a backpack, drum sticks and a story book!

For my review I requested being sent Shen.  I liked the fact that he was a boy considering a lot of stuffed animals are geared towards girls.  My Little C loves stuffed animals so it was nice to see a boy stuffed animal that was cool.  There are so many things I like about Shen.  I love that Shen came with his own story about his and Zylie’s adventure in China.  I also love how detailed the accessories are.  The outfit is very stylish, the back pack is actually big enough to hold Shen’s drum sticks, the passport is absolutely fantastic and Shen isn’t just your normal stuffed animal.  He may not be as a soft and squishy as some stuffed animals, but his arms and legs move so that he can sit up  as well as lay down.  Little C loved that.  He loves for most of his toys to be able to sit or stand  without assistance.

I chose Shen for review mainly because his adventures were based in China.  My brother lives in China with his wife and little boy.  Little C only gets to see them about once a year or so.  Living so far away from them has never really been an issue because Little C wasn’t really old enough to realize that we didn’t see them that often.  This year has been a bit different.  Little C was able to spend most of the summer with his aunt, uncle and cousin.  I told him that they wouldn’t be here very long and that they would go back to China.  I had explained to Little C that China is very far away and that we won’t see them again until next summer.  Well of course as soon as they left Little C kept asking when he would get to see is cousin again.  When I saw that Shen was from China I felt like this would make Little C feel closer to his cousin.  Little C was so excited when Shen arrived.  Little C also loves the book that Shen came with.  The Adventure of the Silk Road is a story about how Zylie and Shen met and the adventure that they went on together around China.  It was actually pretty cool reading this book to Little C because I have actually been to China and visited most of the places that were talked about in the book including The Great Wall and The Forbidden City.  Little C was not only able to connect with his cousin through Shen, but he felt more connected to me as well.  I have shown Little C pictures of me when I visited China, but The Adventure of the Silk Road was a great book that gave many facts about places in China.  Little C has been quite attached to Shen ever since he arrived.  We read his story quite often at bedtime and there hasn’t been a night since we received Shen that Little C hasn’t slept with him.  I really don’t think I could have gotten a better review then Shen for Little C to relate to!

If you have a little one that loves adventures and stuffed animals you definitely need to check into Zylie and Friends.  I don’t think you or your little one would be disappointed.  The books that the stuffed animals come with are great learning tools and I wish I had more of their adventures to read to Little C.  Have fun shopping this holiday season and make sure to check Zylie and Friends out on Facebook and Twitter.

Lori