Let’s Read Animal Words

PreS-Gr 3–In this concept book using letters to represent animals, each page features a bold, colorful illustration on a clean white background. Accompanying each illustration is a line or two of text noting a fact about the animal, and in many cases, a related question to ponder. “Pandas spend ten to sixteen hours a day eating bamboo. What’s your favorite food?” The graphic style is spare, allowing the letters to take center stage, whether they are upside down, stretched, or conjoined, in order to form each animal. While the minimalistic nature of the visuals will make this book abstract for the youngest in the age group for which it’s intended, this book will be fun to share with younger elementary children, who will enjoy searching and finding each letter, and talking about which letters portray which body part. They can guess the animal from the visual, and then work to pick apart the picture letter by letter.