There's an animal for every letter of the alphabet in this stunning collection of poems and prints. Graham Carter's Alphamals captures the strange and striking beauty of the animal kingdom, from the gauzy wings of a dragonfly to the chiselled jaw of a jaguar. With read-aloud text and breathtaking art, this is an A~Z to mesmerise the whole family.
Word count - 1,000
There's an animal for every letter of the alphabet in this stunning collection of poems and prints. Graham Carter's Alphamals captures the strange and striking beauty of the animal kingdom, from the gauzy wings of a dragonfly to the chiselled jaw of a jaguar. With read-aloud text and breathtaking art, this is an A~Z to mesmerise the whole family.
You may have heard of an armadillo or an orangutan but if I asked you what a 'quoll' was, would you know the answer?
I didn't when I first browsed through Graham Carter's beautiful book Alphamals (alphabetical animals!) so I was fascinated to learn that it is a small but fierce creature that 'sleeps through the day then wakes at night. With a long, dark snout and speckled coat, he prowls the shady forest floor, feasting on birds and other beasts.'
Carter's book is an A to Z of animals, insects, birds and fish. Each double-page spread has, on the left side, a description of the creature (written in a stanza form) and on the right side, an illustration. The colours are gorgeous and inviting - 26 pieces of art within a children's book (there is only one creature per letter). Sometimes the exact details of the animals are a little unclear so perhaps it doesn't work as a reference book, but it is certainly something that is visually stunning while still having interesting information.
I showed the book to the children in my library and everyone pored over it. When we looked at the quoll it started off a conversation about nonsense animals (even though the quoll is real!) so we decided it would be good fun to invent an animals, either just by creating a whacky name from nowhere or by combining the names of different real animals.
