Customer Reviews

Alison's Zinnia

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

My 4 year old daughter and I found this book light-hearted and enchanting. The illustrations are beautiful. The book flows smoothly from start to finish making it a very pleasurable read for both parent and child. My daughter brings this book to me on a daily basis and we have read it over and over again. Delightful!

Anita Lobel's Alison's Zinnia is a unique alphabet book using a circular tale to lead the reader from A to Z. Each page has one line which begins with a girl's name and a flower for that particular letter and ends with a girl's name for the next letter, "Heather hosed a Hyacinth for Irene". The split page illustrations show a large detailed painting of the flower on top and the story line with the alphabet letter below the text. I believe children will enjoy the challenge of the unusual names and the flowers portrayed in the picture book. In the classroom it would be a great children's literature rewrite. The students could use, for example, boys names and vegetables to create their own classroom version. Another example of her beautiful art work and her ability to capture the details of a flower are in The Rose in my Garden by Arnold and Anita Lobel.

When my son fell in love with all things blooming, I began my search for a book about flowers. I had been searching for a book that featured several different flower types and their names, as well as color illustrations. I was so pleased when I found Alison's Zinnia! Not only are there beautiful color paintings of the different blooms, there is also a narrative that teaches the ABC's. A few of the flower types are difficult to pronounce (even for the adults out there!), and how many girls do we really know named Xantippa? Also, I was a little disappointed that all the names featured in the book were little girls. I would have liked to see some boys thrown in the mix. Especially since I bought his book for my son. But I still think that the book is a priceless addition to our family library.

Alison's Zinnia is a wonderful "ABC" book that not only teaches the alphabet, but introduces the reader/listener to names of people and flowers. The art is beautiful and illustrates the text richly and accurately.

Alison acquires an amaryllis for Beryl, and so it continues through the alphabet until Zena zeroes in on that zinnia for Alison.

The concept, I thought, was better done with Ogres! Ogres! Ogres!: A Feasting Frenzy from A to Z.

The pictures are pretty enough (the flowers more than the girls), however, I was disappointed to note that in a book of 26 little girls, exactly one of them is non-white. In 1990, I would have expected something more accurately representing the ethnic makeup of the country, more like 4 - 6 non-white children. I know, now that I've said it, that somebody is bound to show up to say that it doesn't matter. Well, if it doesn't matter then it's a little enough thing to do right. And if, as I believe, it *does* matter then it's *still* a little enough thing to do right and it matters more than you think.

At any rate, that's not why I gave the book three stars, I gave it three stars because I don't find it that interesting. This one is destined for my giveaway pile. I'll hand it over to my niece's pre-k teacher tomorrow.