Review of An Alphabetical Menagerie

[Josephe-Anne]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "An Alphabetical Menagerie" by Simon Fisher.]

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4 out of 4 stars

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Have you ever heard of a vicuña? Do you know what a yellowhammer is? You might be surprised to learn that these are animals. In An Alphabetical Menagerie by Simon Fisher, you’ll discover interesting facts about many different creatures. Little ones will learn their ABCs with clever rhymes about each species. Then they’ll find out more about the animals from the informative text that accompanies each entry. Eye-catching artwork by Dave F. Smith is sure to grab their attention too. With this lovely picture book, they won’t have to go to the zoo!

The cover art features a drawing of an axolotl on a turquoise background. Since the word axolotl begins with the letter “a,” this is also the first entry in the book. Short rhyming poems accompany each entry. Information is also provided about each species, including threats to their survival. The featured letter is highlighted in a red font for emphasis. There is no inappropriate content in this book.

The bright, quirky illustrations are full of personality! I like the fact that this book is educational because unusual animals were selected to teach kids about things they probably won’t come across very often. Even adults can learn a thing or two. I learned that there are over sixteen thousand kinds of bees. I also learned about the life cycle of eels. I also appreciated that the text mentions axolotls and sloths; these are two of my favorite animals. In addition, this book teaches children about culture by mentioning famous people like Ludwig van Beethoven (the composer) and Robert Burns (the poet).

I only have two suggestions to make. Given that this is a book for preschoolers, I felt that some of the vocabulary words were a bit too advanced for that age group. A glossary would have been helpful to explain some of the difficult words that were included in the text. Also, it didn’t make sense to use King Xerxes to represent the letter “x.” That seemed out of place because he already falls into the human species, and humans were used to represent the letter “h.”

Nevertheless, I found this book delightful and unique among children's literature. So, I happily award An Alphabetical Menagerie by Simon Fisher a rating of four out of four stars. I highly recommend this publication to the parents/guardians of curious young children. Any child who loves animals will enjoy this book, but they will need an adult or older sibling’s help to read it.

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An Alphabetical Menagerie
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[Jennifer Coxon]

This sounds like a wonderful book and a lovely way to learn with the mix of poems, facts and pictures. However, I agree for the age that some of the words might be a bit advanced - I don’t even think I know how to pronounce ‘axolotl’.

[Katherine Powell-Polkey]

Oh this sounds wonderful! You wrote a great review. I need to go find a copy for my son.