Animalphabet by Julia Donaldson illustrated by Sharon King-Chai

There are so many things I love about this book.

1.  Every young child should own a special alphabet book - this could be the one that you select.
2.  Every young child should own a book filled with the marvels of the animal kingdom.
3.  Every young child should own a book with art that is colourful, beautiful and almost tactile and in this book there is the bonus of flaps to lift and cut-outs which reveal surprises.

I had a special animal alphabet book when I was small. It was nothing like Animalphabet but I loved it and returned to it often and even now more than 50 years later I still pick up this book.  I do hope that will be how your child feels about Animalphabet.

So many different people have illustrated books by the award winning author Julia Donaldson. What a thrill it must have been for Sharon King-Chai to be asked to work on this book. I've made an exciting discovery. Sharon King-Chai was born in Australia. Take a look at this very short publisher video which shows some pages from inside Animalphabet.

Image source: http://melsbookshelf.com/book-reviews/animalphabet-julia-donaldson/

I like the way the pages work like a guessing game in a question and answer format which invites a natural participation by young readers.  Here is a sample of the text:

Who is bigger than a deer?
An elephant!
Who is pinker than an elephant?
A flamingo!
Who can butt better than a flamingo?

Along with the animals there is an array of comparative adjectives - prettier, faster, pinker, muddier and shaggier. You could work with a class to add to this list and then encourage students to add this grammar device to their own writing.

Some of the animal choices might seem predicable to an adult but the youngest children won't notice this I'm sure. Take a look at this list

A = Ant
B = Butterfly
H = Hedgehog
I =Iguana
L = Ladybird
N = Nightingale
U = Umbrella Bird
V = Vole

Here are some of my favourite alphabet books.