Two Great (But Very Different) Animal ABC Books

Beth at Cover to Cover had CREATURE ABC by Andrew Zuckerman waiting for me when I visited last week. And I am so glad that she did. This is a gorgeous animal alphabet book done in photos. It is very simple in concept--a letter, an animal and the animal word for each letter of the alphabet.

This book is a chunky square book. The photography is stunning and is placed against a white background. Kids are going to love it! Each letter is introduced with a photo of an animal. Then upon turning the page, the animal name is revealed (although not really as a surprise), with another picture of the animal/letter word. Most of the letters are represented by animals but some like N is represented with the word "Nocturnal" with a few examples of those.

A simple concept that I think kids will spend hours with. Really unbelievable pictures. (In case you are wondering, the rooster is my favorite.) It is a great book for young children or children just learning animal names. I am pretty sure that it will also be popular with older kids in the library.


I also picked up THE ZOO I DREW by Todd Doodler last week. It is a great book that I am excited about. The cover is unique--red and corrugated. Very bright and engaging. This is an alphabet book of animals. On each page, there is an animal-the drawing takes up most of the page. And the pattern is predictable "E is for Elephant". Following each animal name, there are 4 lines about the animal. The lines are mostly in rhyme and they give some basic information about the animal. For example, we learn that the panda eats bamboo and the rhino has a horn on its nose.

The illustrations are unique--Each spread uses only a few colors or different shades of one color. But the book as a whole uses a huge variety of colors, as each spread uses different colors. If that makes any sense at all....

I love this book--can see lots of possibilities--a great one to use as an ABC book with kids just learning letters/sounds, etc. It is also a great model for writing for older kids who are beginning to write nonfiction. I can see it used in lots of ways.