Atlantic Animal ABC by Angela Doak – Book Review

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From the Publisher:

From Atlantic puffin to zooplankton, with lots of wild Atlantic Canadiana in between–like lobster, brown bat, moon jellyfish, porcupine, and more–Atlantic Animal ABCs is the perfect introduction for young ones to the region’s wildlife.
With vibrant paper collage illustrations, Angela K. Doak’s whimsical animal interpretations are a great teaching tool for introducing baby to alphabet and animals all at once, and leave lots of room for play!

Description:

This board book has gorgeous paper collage illustrations by photographer and collage artist, Angela Doak. Children will love the vibrant images of animals from Atlantic Canada. This title would have a place in the nursery of any child, regardless of Zip/Postal Code. As you might assume, with a limited locale to draw animals from, some of the creatures are a bit loosely aligned with their letter of the alphabet (i.e. second parts of the animal name used for the letter [C – Green Crab] or, in one case the scientific name is used, which increases the complexity level (X – Xiphias Gladius [Swordfish]).

My Experience:

My two-year-old twins loved this book – they have had fun trying to pronounce animal names. The baby I read the book to was interested in the illustrations and tried to reach out on several occasions to grab the animals (some of the collage images almost look 3D in places!).  I would have loved to have more information included about each animal (on an end page) along with information about their habitat.  That would have raised this book to the next level and extended the learning to allow me to effectively use it for science with my 4 year-old.

     Likes:

• bright and vibrant collage illustrations are eye catching and will hold a young child’s interest
• wide variety of animals profiled
• both capital and lowercase letters shown

     Dislikes:

• some of the animals only match their corresponding letter with a second part of their name, or other variation (due to limited choices), which may cause confusion.
• It would have been great to have some end notes giving a bit more information about each animal and/or habitat profile to widen the audience (age range) and also extend the usefulness of the book.

Why/How Use it with kids:

• As an extension, look up habitats for each animal.  Do the animals included in this book only live in Atlantic Canada, or do they have wider habitats?
• Create an animal ABC for your own surroundings.  Would any of the same animals be included?
  • Illustrate or create the animals for your ABC (diorama, clay, paint, etc.)

About the Author:

Angela Doak is a collage artist and photographer. All of her work is done first as collage, made up of fabric, candy and gum wrappers, misprints, junk mail, and just about anything else that fits the image she’s making at the time. She lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia, with her husband and two children. (from publisher website)