Customer Reviews

The Furry Animal Alphabet Book

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

 

 

My 20 month old son received this book as a gift. Though he is too young to "read" the book, he absolutely loves looking at all of the wonderfully illustrated animals. While reading the book to my son, he and I both learn a great deal about animals we had never heard of, from Aye-Aye to Zorilla. This is a book that will teach my son for many years to come.

I have to disagree with the previous reviewer. My kids loved this book (and another in this series, The Icky Bug Book) precisely because it was so quirky. This is not really a book to teach the alphabet. It's more an assemblage of odd and interesting animal facts. My zoologist-daughter spent many nights examining the illustrations of these previously unknown animals. There are plenty of other books around about kittens and ducks and other familiar animals. That's what makes this book about aye-ayes and hyraxes so appealing!

As a homeschooling mother who loves alphabet books, I am drawn to books that will help my children learn the letters of the alphabet. I also love nature and animals and thought this book sounded great. Unfortunately I didn't like it much at all. Many of the animals here are animals I've never heard of in my lifetime or if I learned them in public school I've since forgotten them. I feel that children learn best and easiest when what they are learning is relative to their life or their interests. This book won't work well for our family since many of the animals portrayed are not from our region of the world and they (and I) just can't relate to them. Some examples are Aye-Aye, Hyrax, Springbok and Vizcacha. Since I've not heard of these animals and they are from other cultures I honestly am guessing at the pronunciation. Since such obscure and diverse animals are represented it would have been helpful if the author included how to pronounce the word!

There is one page per letter with the letter being shown in both capital and lower case print which is great. The featured word is written in small font just as the 3-4 sentences that describe this animal. I prefer to see the featured word in much larger font separately featured from the paragraphical description. Since such diverse animals are represented I feel the author should have told us the geographic region that these animals live in (for all the animals not just a few).

Again, I feel that the animals are too complex and not familiar to preschool aged children living in America to have relevance in their lives and to help teach the alphabet. I guess I am looking for a furry animal of North America book!

I concur with one of the other reviews, which stated this book would be better to introduce some wild animals than teaching the alphabet.

I thought this book was one of the best of the Jerry Palotta Alphabet series. This book is not intended for the pre-school crowd although some young children would love it. It is intended for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd graders who are learning animals. Since 3rd graders generally learn animals in a unit in school, this book would work wonderfully with them. The book focuses on more obscure and different animals because the audience for this book already knows about many basic animals and wants to know more complex information. Animals, especially mammals are living things kids can relate to easily so that makes this a great book. The writing is fun and face paced and the jokes take you by surprise. I teach ESOL students who are learning a new language and the names of animals among other things. These books help me reinforce the alphabet and introducing more complex material to them. I highly recommend this books. It's good to know something of the world around them.

I think any bright preschooler would enjoy this book, though it is definitely more about animals than about the alphabet. My four-year-old daughter absolutely loves it, and walks around the house spouting amazing trivia ("Did you know that the golden lion marmoset is a new world monkey? Old world monkeys are from Africa and Asia, but new world monkeys are from North America or South America. I live in North America, so I am from the new world.")

As an item of interest for Jews, how many books for kids mention the hyrax? Not many, though the hyrax is one of the non-kosher animals specifically mentioned in the Torah. Can't beat that.