From School Library Journal
Grade 1-3?A picture book that features the specific names for a variety of animals and their babies. Soft watercolors, accompanied by short rhyming verses, flow across two-page spreads. Eels and seals swim the blue seas with their elvers and beach weaners. Giraffes and their calves keep an eye on a lazy lion and his cubs under a hazy orange sky. The pleasant illustrations are offset by the bland verse: "Fluffy, scruffy swan/please do not forget,/you're not an 'ugly duckling.'/You're a beautiful cygnet!" Overall, the greatest value here lies in the alphabetical listing of 100 adult animals and the corresponding names for their offspring that appears at the end of the book.?Lisa Wu Stowe, Great Neck Library, NY
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Ages 5-8. Using a rhyming verse, this book introduces baby animals and the interesting, sometimes odd terms by which they are known: "Fluffy scruffy swan / please do not forget, / you're not an `ugly duckling,' / You're a beautiful cygnet." To maximize the roster of creatures, each section features rhymes about three baby animals before asking the name of one particular one. The book is slightly out of kilter, and it is really a somewhat older crowd that will be the most interested in the names of baby animals or that will have even the vaguest chance at the book's guessing-game aspect. Even so, kids will enjoy the colorful paintings featuring lots of cute animals. The book ends with an extended list of terms for baby animals.
Ilene Cooper
--This text refers to an alternate
Hardcover
edition.
