Animalia

This colorful and amazingly illustrated alphabet book made of puzzles of animals that are certain to catch the reader's eye! A uniquely brilliant book that challenges the reader to discover new things on each page!

This book is one of my favorite books of all time. The pictures are beautiful beyond words. The alliteration is enchanting. The challenge to find pictures that start with the sound of each letter is fantastic. My only concern is that on the letter "K", they have a picture of guns and a kidnapping

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scenario. In most American schools, it's against the rules to play "guns". So, it may confuse children when they see it in a book at school.

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Kids' books don't come any more five-star than this awsome labour of illustrative love. Incredible, a must-buy.

Fantastic illustrations - each page is full of items that begin with the featured letter - terrific for helping kids learn their letters in an active way as they search for each item.

A great way to learn the alphabet. Beautiful pictures that will keep childrens attention.

A great hidden pictures alphabet book. The pictures are brilliant and make for a fun learning game where all different skill levels can find something in the pages. Imaginative and educational!

Yet another abecedaria, this one lavishly and bizarrely illustrated. The drawings have incredible and subtle details. An animal or bird features in each, but there are other things going on. For instance, "C" reads "Crafty Crimson Cats carefully catching Crusty Crayfish". But also there is a camera

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around one cat's neck, another wears a cap, while a third has a paw resting on a calculator. The crayfish are joined in the water by an old clock and a cork and a clarinet.

The author/illustrator has hidden an image of himself as a child in each drawing.

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This ABC book of animals is filled from corner to corner with colorful and detailed illustrations. Each letter of the alphabet highlights an animal and contains a fun phrase of alliteration. Examples include "Beautiful blue butterflies basking by a babbling brook," "Ingenious iguanas improvising an

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intricate impromptu on impossibly impractical instruments," and "Proud peacocks preening perfect plumage."

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There's two ways to do an alphabet book. The first is to have each letter firmly illustrated by one - and only one! - item. The second, which is the approach taken in this book, is to have as many items as possible crammed onto each page.

The result is an alphabet book that grows with your kid,

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because even a grown-up can spend a lot of time quietly poring over the pages of the book to catch one last detail, find one more F word, locate the boy in the striped shirt on every page.

There are a few pages that seemingly indicate violence - hogs going into battle, a kangaroo in a kidnapping, warrior wasps - so parents of more sensitive children will want to read this book before purchasing. Frankly, I think these scenes are not worrisome at all, but others may disagree.

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LibraryThing ate my review again! It was so long! So maddening.

This book was amazing. Each panel was stuffed with objects that started with each letter of the alphabet. I loved looking at all of the panels and discovering new things every few seconds. The characters are animals which is lovely, and

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the surrealness of it all is so fun and imaginative, it's sure to spark creativity in anyone who reads it. In the classroom I see it as an alphabet project where kids can try to point out as many things on the page starting with the letter as they can (or a competition). They could have to create their own similar panels or create murals in groups.

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Animalia is one of my favorite children’s books. It is an alphabetical book, and each letter is assigned an animal. A tongue twister involving the animal adorns each page, for example “Lazy Lions lounging in the local library”. I actually use this book to teach alliteration to my ninth

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graders. Each page has a specific color that is predominant in the extremely impressive artwork that illustrates this book. The most fun is that there is a character hiding within each drawing. Base also does the illustrations. They are fantastic in idea, but extremely realistic in rendition. His use of color is unique to each letter/ tongue twister, adding a very concrete element to each. When a child thinks of “L”, he/ she will think of lions in the library, and everything will be flooded in a warm corn yellow.

I liked both of these books, but I felt Animalia to be the better book. I like that The Calypso Alphabet teaches new words and phrases that add to the multiculturalism. I prefer Animalia because it has so much going on. It promotes the alphabet but also language and diction, as tongue twisters are difficult to say. It is very visually stimulating, colorful, and has a search on each page. It even sneaks some counting in. It is a very impressive book indeed.

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The best illustrated book I've ever seen. Graeme Base is a master of visual storytelling, teaching kids about words and alliteration through creative phrases like "Diabolical Dragons Daintily Devouring Delicious Delicacies." The illustrations are so rich, so straightforward yet fanciful, that

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readers are enchanted by both the simplicity and the intricacy of the work.
Grades K-2. Group Read. Wide Appeal to visual learners. Positives - Enchanting illustrations. Negatives - none.

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Beautifully illustrated and playfully worded, this is a great ABC book. Each page has an alliteration on a letter, illustrations that match the sentence, and a lot of little objects that match the letter on the page. The look and find aspect of the pages adds a layer of excitement and challenge for

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children (and adults).

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The alphabet has never been so enticing! The illustrations lead the reader into the world of each letter - even in the tiniest places. Children will delight in finding as many things as possible.

I originally bought this book years ago for my children, but I had to go out and get another copy just to keep on my coffee table. The artwork is amazing! This book has given countless guests in my home a delightful romp back into childhood.

This was one of my favorite books when I was a child, and it's still just as wonderful today. It's an alphabet book, but there's much more to it. Each letter boasts a tongue-twisting alliteration, often using big words that I remember having to sound out as a child, and then became curious about

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the meaning. As a graphic design major, I am very interested in typography and especially hand drawn type, and there are beautiful specimens of hand drawn type in this book. Also, each page contains not only the illustration described in words, but countless other objects that begin with that particular letter, as well as the artist himself hiding on every page, making the book into an exciting, animal version of Where's Waldo. As a child, there's so much more to learn in this book besides just the alphabet, and even as an adult, everything about this book is still fun and exciting.

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Containing fun words that start with the specific letter, as well as different animals and insects that represent the different letters I really believe this is a must-have book for the classroom, library, or home. I love the pictures in this book adn it was one that I grew up with. It is mature

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enough for adults to like to look at it while they read it to their kids and it is fun enough with lots of details for children to look at.

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Base, Graeme. Animalia. New York: Abrams Books for Young Readers, 1986. This beautifully illustrated alphabet book will keep kids studying each page. Each letter in the alphabet has a creatively written alliteration with animals staring as the main characters. The author also includes other things

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that start with the same letter on the same page. Each letter has a unique setting. This would be a fun and engaging way to teach alliteration and the alphabet. Age Group: 6-8 years

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This is a non-fiction text that covers many animals and many details about them! It includes some nice images of the animals and could definitely be of interest to any animal-loving child! This would be a great resource to have in a classroom.

This is a great book for young children, early childhood-PreK.
The alliteration use is wonderfully written to allow children to learn the ABC's, while also learning about a variety of different animals. I will use this book with my students to examine many species of the animal kingdom, while also

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teaching my students the alphabet in a way that allows them to learn new, large words, that are much easier to pronounce and understand with the great use of alliteration.

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I remember spending hours poring over every page looking for each little animal. A brilliant artist and a great book. I believe my Mum still has my old copy somewhere.

This a beautiful book as all of Graeme Base's books are. A must for inquisitive arty children, plus its great for the adults as well.

One of my favorite picture books of all time. Look for the little boy in the red and yellow striped shirt. Great gift book

Graeme Base's books make me smile. They make me feel like a kid again. The colors and drawings are so vibrant. Every time I look at them I see something I didn't see before.