Customer Reviews

Scranimals

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Absolutely delightful. Clever and funny, and the pictures are ridiculous. Some of the best rhymes I've ever read out loud.

When I saw this book in the bookstore, I knew it would be good. Some of the things I didn't get at first, but my parents told me. When I reached that point, I found the humor in each one.
"On a bump beside a road
Sits a lowly Potatoad,
Obviously unaware
Of its own existence there."
This is a great read for all ages, despite complicated and hard-to-understand animals like the Stormy Petrelephant and the Cardinalbacore. I strongly suggest you should read this book.
-By Wu Love

Jack Prelutsky has created yet another treasure of a book that is truly silly but certainly not shallow! Youngsters will most likely need this book to be read to them since the vocabulary is a bit elevated (verdant, acrobatic, accelerates, meander, languorous, etc.). Of course, with creature names like "rhinocerose" and "antelopetunia", even adults may need to give this a read-thru before attempting the names out loud! Especially fun are the mangorilla and the orangutangerine who cavort through the jungle and are rarely seen.

Sis' mostly monochromatic illustrations are surprisingly exciting and help the reader to really understand these strange animal and animal/plant (especially fruit and vegetable) hybrid creatures. The back cover is further help to decipher these scranimals' imaginative origins and may inspire youngsters to come up with some combinations of their own.

This is a book that I delight in reading over and over - something I can't say for most books. The rhymes are fun and imaginative and flow naturally. The vocabulary used is adult and lends depth to the images. The illustrations are fascinating and relaxing with their dense patterns, quiet colors, and wide vistas. My daughter, who is six, loves the book and I imagine she will love it for many years. Scranimals is a classic. It will definitely get passed down to future generations of our family.

During the story a boy and a girl went on a trip the Scranimal Island. They saw a lot of animals such as the RHINOCEROSE, a group SPINACHICKENS, a caravan of CAMELBERTA PEACHES, a lonely POTATOAD, one CARDINALBACORE, couple of HIPPOPOTAMUSHROOMS, talkative PARROTTERS, a sweet PORCUPINEAPPLE, fierce BROCCOLIONS, a nimble ANTELOPETUNIA, an unsuccessful STORMY PETRELEPHANT, content TOUCANEMONES, then the vicious RADISHARK, a yellow BANANACONDA, the fast OSTRICHEETAH, a shy PANADAFFODIL, and the playful MANGORILLA and his friend the ORANGUTANGERINE. The extinct AVOCADODO wasn't smart, strong, or fast, it is no wonder you are extinct.
This book is my favorite picture book because all the animals were mixed up. The craziest animal was the PORCUPINEAPPLE because it was cute and the poem was funny.

Both of my children are book lovers, but I have never seen them get such delight out of a book as they do with Scranimals. My daughter is 9 and my son is 4.5. They read it over and over and we have constant conversations about which scranimal is our favorite (in the car, at the dinner table, in bed). I take such pleasure in reading this book - the cadence, the rhyming, and the beautiful pictures. This is my new "birthday present of choice". Every child's party we attend in '05 will be with Scranimals wrapped to give. It is not only their favorite, but mine as well.

"We're sailing to Scranimal Island,/It doesn't appear on most maps./The PARROTTERS float on the tide there,/The STORMY PETRELEPHANT flaps./We may find a rare OSTRICHEETAH,/There's never been one in a zoo./We're sailing to Scranimal Island-/You're welcome to come along too." So pack your bags and join a young boy and girl on the safari adventure of a lifetime. It's time to explore an island of never before seen mixed up animals, vegetables, birds, flowers, and sea creatures. Meet the aromatic RHINOSEROSE, the green SPINACHICKENS, lowly POTATOAD, and inert HIPPOPOTAMUSHROOMS. Frolic with the noisy PARROTTERS, and the sweet PORCUPINEAPPLE. Swing through the trees with the MANGORILLA, and ORANGUTANGERINE. Watch a pride of BROCCOLIONS hunting ANTELOPETUNIA for dinner, and cavort in a mountain meadow with a PANDAFFODIL. And don't forget to visit the TOUCANEMONES, RADISHARK, BANANACONDA, poor, extinct AVOCADODOS, and other scrambled creatures living out their days on this magical island..... Jack Prelutsky's creative and inventive "scranimal" poems are filled with rhyme, rhythm, engaging wordplay, humor, and silly puns. Award winning illustrator, Peter Sis' intricately detailed artwork dazzles, and will send imaginations soaring with each page turn. Perfect for youngsters of all ages, Scranimals is a unique and captivating, fun-filled romp, and definitely Prelutsky and Sis at their very best. "We've journeyed to Scranimal Island,/Where magical creatures are found,/Where AVOCADODOS still flourish,/And green SPINACHICKENS abound./We've seen a PANDAFFODIL dining,/A PORCUPINEAPPLE at play./Perhaps there is more to discover-/We'd like to return there someday." We can only hope that day comes very soon.

I picked this up @ resale shop.
My 2.5 yr old loved it & still does as she's knocking on 3's door.
She told me today she wanted a Broccolion birthday!

This book is great! Jack is so creative and gifted with words. I bought this book for my 4 year old daughter, and she loved every bit of it, except for the Mangorilla and Orangatangerine. She made me skip that part, because she said the picture gave her the creeps!
This book takes you on a bizarre journey through an amazingly creative place with a clever play on words, and wonderful poetic content. My daughter spent hours looking at this book and had fun figuring out the animal combinations that created each character. I was particularly grateful for the pronunciation guide for the animals!

I was intrigued and amused to see another reviewer say her children were obsessed with "Scranimals" -- because that's the same reaction we got with our kid!

Jack Prelutsky evidently knows the secret of how to captivate children, especially when teamed up with illustrators like Peter Sis. Nearly every Prelutsky book that enters our home gets the same treatment: fascination, amusement, and above all, lots of reading and re-reading.

One might say that this is not Prelutsky's most ingenious work, since it's basically a single concept stretched out into a series of variations, not all of which are equally clever. But there's more to it than that. The illustrations are compelling and fun. And much of the poetry is more highly-crafted than one might expect, given the silly first impression the book makes.

A great example is the description of the "Bananaconda" (that word alone always makes ME laugh!) in which the author slathers syballant syllables in silly sequences. I took the opportunity to point out to our first-grader how a poet describes things differently than other kinds of writers.

I then read it aloud to demonstrate that point, sssimply by exsstending each of the esses on the page. At that point, most kids can make the connection between the sound of the words, and their understanding of "S" as the sound made by a snake -- something many of them learn in preschool, if not earlier.

And of course those words were written ABOUT a snake. For a kid to learn that words can have multiple layers of meaning, and to learn that concept at such an early age... well, that's really something. And Prelutsky is one of the best at delivering that kind of depth, even when combined with utter silliness.

In short, Scranimals is definitely a worthy addition to any child's collection, at nearly any age.