Customer Reviews

D'Aulaires' Book of Animals (New York Review Books)

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The d'Aulaires were best known for their biographies for children (Leif the Lucky, Benjamin Franklin, Pocahontas, and others) as well as their collections of Norse and Greek myths. We recently found Book of Animals back in print on Amazon and I shouldn't have bought it because of my budget but Brad has really enjoyed this book. The pages fold out as a panorama longer than I am tall. One side is in color and has simple text spreading north to south and explaining what different animals like best about their climate. The reverse side is a black and white sketch of equal length mainly covering the sounds the same animals make but showing them more in action. Again the text is simple:

The Polar Bear growls.
The Whale blows, and he is the biggest of al the animals on land and in the sea.
The Gull cries.
The Sea Elephant roars.
The Walrus snores.
The Eiderduck squawks.
The Seal barks.

The text continues heading south (geographically).

What I like about this book is that it is a springboard. We can look through it and move on to the globe showing where these animals live. We can use it to launch us into poetry about different animals, or books about them. The simple drawings are not intimidating and encourage children to draw their own. From this simple book and a little discussion, "school" flows naturally into other projects.

The illustrations are fun and engaging for all ages, simple in a childlike sense and yet realistic enough not to lead small minds astray. It's also a great "activity" discussion book between an older child and a younger sibling.

The only down side is that the text is so simple as to be easily outgrown. It would have been nice if there had been some animals fact pages or verse included at the end of the book (considering the d'Aulaires originally prepared this work for their own young son the lack is understandable -- it was designed for delight and not for the single purpose of meeting the needs of educators), but as long as you are willing to use it as a springboard and pull in other sources as your child gets older, it is still a living book that allows one to lead children to other imformation without becoming dry and textbookish in one's approach to learning.

Beautiful, classic D'Aulaires artwork. The entire book folds open into one long panorama. All of my children ages 4-13 love this book. It is one of those books you enjoy reading and admiring again and again.