Customer Reviews

The Aminal

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

My children loved this book. Now I use it in my classroom when we do descriptive writing. I have a couple of Aminals of my own, half the class looks at them and describes them to a partner who draws what they must look like. Just like in the story, it's amazing to compare the imaginative concept to the real aminal. This story teaches so much about human nature in such a wonderful, imaginative way.

A great message that is wonderfully sritten. It must be read aloud - which is an absolute pleasure. The words flow. The ilustrations have a timeless quality and provoke appropriate questions at appropirate times during the story. This book was a favorite for my mother, a nursery school teacher 20 years ago. I am fortunate to have had a copy for my own children - which has spanned the last 8 yrs. I will keep this book in hopes of reading it to future generations

This is a great childrens book to inspire the young childs imagination. I have used this book many times in the classroom. The response on the childrens faces as they imagine what he (The Aminal) looks like, is wonderful. You can almost see their brains working on overtime in the imagination zone. One thing I usally do just before The Aminals looks are revealed is stop the story and have the children draw a picture of what they think The Aminal looks like. The response is great! They want to tell you why they think he looks like their drawing and usally about what they remember of the story. This is a great story for building comprehension skills and teaching children about rumors and gossip. An amazing surprise is awaiting you and your child at the end of The Aminal.

I bought this book for my nephew because I have a copy of it from when I was a child and loved it. The magic of the book lies in the illustrations. In my copy from the Seventies, the images look as if they have been painted with water colours and are very beautiful. This modern reprint, however, is on glossy, waxy paper and the pictures look 'flat' and washed out. It has lost all the original 'just painted' look and the slightly psychedelic colours in the illustrations. It took away all the magic and prettiness of the book. I was very disappointed. I regret wasting my money.

As a teacher I have used this book to develop skills of prediction, imagination, comparison, and just plain fun! The pictures are wonderful! As a matter of fact, I have a life size "aminal" that I introduced to the kids before reading the book to tickle their curiosity. As a teacher, I used the old copy we had at our old library. I no longer teach and have searched for a copy of the book for a very long time. It was out of print for many years. Thanks for the convenient conduit for finding and purchasing a copy!

This was my favorite book growing up. I have bought numerous copies for all my friends children.

The Aminal was just as I remembered. My daughter loved the illustrations. She was also delighted with the ending.

I had this book when my children were young. Like so many other memories, I had trouble sharing the wonder of "The Aminal". Little children hear and see in the same way that adults do, but they have the innocence to express themselves honestly, and with great emotion. I will buy this for all my grandchildren. I hope they will learn the very valuable lesson this book teaches. I'm going to buy one for everyone I love!

This is probably my favorite Lorna Balian book. I was fortunate to have Lorna Balian visit my school this spring, and it was a wish come true. It was perfect. My school needed her new colorized version of this book.

I am a third grade teacher, and I use this book to teach about visualization while reading. I read the book, and have the students draw what they think the Aminal looks like at each stage of the book (they can't look at the pictures until after I've read the whole book). When they get to the end and realize what the aminial really is, they think it is amazing. This books also teaches about how people get facts mixed up and something small can turn into something way bigger than it really is. This is a great buy!