Rating: 
Summary: One of the Most Amazing Sights in books
Review: "Animalia" is an illustrated book that brings you into a magical fantasy land full of animals. It features brilliant pictures of cats, birds, mice, unicorns and all sorts of animals. Each creature acts out interesting activities with gorgeous backgrounds. I am now sixteen, but I remember when the book recently came out, some six or seven years ago and I was amazed by the many sights of this book. Every page has "tongue twisters" for the letters of the alphebet, such as "Crafty Crimson Cats Carefully Catchting Crusty Crayfish" and "Lazy Lions Lounging In The Local Library". The pages also have pictures of many things that start with the letters. The lions look at books titled "Lassie Come Home", "Let's Learn Latin", and "Life In Louxembourg". The cats where charms and sit next to a pond, surrounded by a grand horizan where in the background you see castles and churches. Myself and my brother and sister loved looking for all of the things that started with C. We were also very amazed by the mesmorizing images. These illustrations look very lifelike, in fact, they look very much like the wonderful scenes children see in dreams. Reading this book with your kids is like walking through a great fantasy adventure in an animal world. It also serves as an excellent method to teach the alphebet to children. You will always enjoy reading this book with your kids and your kids will also enjoy reading and looking at the book by themselves.
Rating:
Summary: Animalia, great subject, great motivation!
Review: Animalia By Graeme BaseWhat great illustrations! What great prose! The writing is arranged differently on each page, in different colors, styles, and size! What a way to introduce flexibility into a child's reading skills! And the motivation is fantastic! Children love the variety, both in the writing and in the detailed pictures! Kids love the silliness and words similar in sounds, too! And great big words for early readers are most challenging and exciting! As a retired teacher, I remember reading times when older children (age 9 - 11), would sit for an entire silent reading period,looking for the tiny picture of Graeme Base on each page, all the while enjoying and appreciating the other illustrations, and usually chuckling about them I remember older children willingly reading aloud to younger children in an after-school program. I remember younger children (age5-6) reinforcing beginning sounds of letters in this book, by listening and reading the long words, sounding them out as they read along, getting hints from the many illustrations, and at the same time, sharpening their visual skills, noticing details on each page. All in all, a great book for children! Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: the illustrations and text are both superb
Review: Animalia opens with a poem entreating the reader to search for the boy in each illustration, and it is well worth the effort. The surrealistic images that flow to the edge of nearly each page dazzle the eye; each one contains more than a person could take in during an hour of observing. Each painting portrays the alliterative line that accompanies it. A reader can experience this book either as 26 separate narrative poems, or 26 lines to one alphabet-infused poem. Through Base's alliterative efforts and animal illustrations for each letter of the alphabet, he exposes children to many new and difficult words as children enjoy persevering to discover the hidden image in each picture.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful book by brilliant Base!
Review: Base's beautiful illustrations and silly alliteration make this book one of my favorite teaching tools. It's perfect for 3rd graders and up. The text will be difficult for younger kids to understand, but they will enjoy the bright colors and the sounds of the tongue twisters. What makes this book so much fun is that the illustrations on each page are all items that begin with the same letter as each tongue twister. However, it's not always easy to figure this out. For example, on the first page with the letter A you will see a picture of a snake. But snake begins with the letter "s", so how can this be? Well, it's an Anaconda!! You can keep your kids (or students) busy by having them be a detective and list all the items on a page that begin with that letter. This activity really requires higher level thinking
skills and is perfect for challenging your students. Also, in every picture the author has drawn himself as a little boy. It's like a little puzzle on each page. Kudos to Base. A brilliant book that finds the child in all of us--regardless of our age.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful book by brilliant Base!
Review: Base's beautiful illustrations and silly alliteration make this book one of my favorite teaching tools. It's perfect for 3rd graders and up. The text will be difficult for younger kids to understand, but they will enjoy the bright colors and the sounds of the tongue twisters. What makes this book so much fun is that the illustrations on each page are all items that begin with the same letter as each tongue twister. However, it's not always easy to figure this out. For example, on the first page with the letter A you will see a picture of a snake. But snake begins with the letter "s", so how can this be? Well, it's an Anaconda!! You can keep your kids (or students) busy by having them be a detective and list all the items on a page that begin with that letter. This activity really requires higher level thinking
skills and is perfect for challenging your students. Also, in every picture the author has drawn himself as a little boy. It's like a little puzzle on each page. Kudos to Base. A brilliant book that finds the child in all of us--regardless of our age.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic alphabet book
Review: In this book, each letter appears with an amusing gerundive phrase describing animals doing something. The book is richly illustrated. Each item in the drawings starts with the focused letter of the page. The book is great for kids to sit and point at the details in the pictures and identify all the items that begin with the focused letter. The book has about 170 words.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic alphabet book
Review: In this book, each letter appears with an amusing gerundive phrase describing animals doing something. The book is richly illustrated. Each item in the drawings starts with the focused letter of the page. The book is great for kids to sit and point at the details in the pictures and identify all the items that begin with the focused letter. The book has about 170 words.
Rating:
Summary: Great For Kids learning there ABC's!
Review: It has really big words that little kids might not know how to say, but the drawings are outstanding and it has the ABC's in it...here's an example in the book... "Ingenious Iguanas Improvising an Intericate Impromptu on Impossibly Impractical Instruments." And it has a very detailed picture of Iguanas playing instruments. I've loved this books since I was a kid and there is so much going on in the pictures you have to look at the pictures for a while. And everything in that picture has to do with that letter on that page. It's awesome. I'm going to buy the discovering dragons one too.
Rating:
Summary: AMAZING book for ALL AGES
Review: My son is 2 years of age and I've gone a little crazy in the book-buying department--out of his vast collection, Animalia is his absolute favorite. They say it's for 9 to 12-year-olds, so I'm sure he'll be reading it for years. I haven't seen the other versions of the book, but we have the large paperback and it's a great size for checking out every beautiful, imaginative detail.
Rating:
Summary: An amazing book for kids of all ages
Review: My son received this book when he was a small child (he's now 16) and we spent hours reviewing all the pictures to find the objects that started with the letter featured on the page, finding the little boy hidden in each picture, and memorizing the "alphaquips," as he coined them. I have such fond memories of cuddling with him, reading Animalia. I just purchased the gift for a friend's child, and while looking over the book for the first time in years, I was more impressed with the artwork than I was when I first saw the book. I had forgotten what a wonderful alphabet book this is, and it will become a staple children's gift going forward. My son even got excited when the new book arrived at the house (and that's high praise from a 16 year old) - he still remembered some of his favorite "alphaquips", and we're talking years later. So buy this book - you will love it for years to come, you will remember it for years to come, and you will save it for your grandchildren!!!!!!!!
| 
