Mammalabilia

My four years old loves Douglas Florian!! As a future teacher I know his books are a great addition to the classroom as well. We have so many of these and won’t stop until we buy the whole set!

We purchased this for a gift for my niece because it has been one of our favorite books. Gifted to us six years ago by my librarian aunt, this book was the sleeper hit in our house. The poems are short and catchy - and very clever. All about animals, kids love the paintings, which are often very clever as well. We love reading it to them because it is clever, interesting, and a nice shift from other kids' books. Our favorite book by this excellent author.

Dear friends bought this book for one of my sons many years ago, and, although he's 20 now, he can still recite most of these witty, silly verses by heart. I bought 2 for 2 friends who recently had babies -- I hope they get as much fun out of it as we did!!

This book is for young children just starting to read. The color illustrations are in a somewhat simplistic (primative) are form, and the poems are short (a lot of white space in the book). Overall, it is kept simple for young children, but some of the phonetic spellings are probably not the best for proper teaching.

This is a rather unique little book. At first glance (without a thoughtful read), the short poems are rather simple in nature and are indeed quite easy to read, which is good for the young ones. On the other hand, the word play the author uses is actually quite complex. He actually has fun with words and I suspects, hopes his adult readers will also. The art at first glance is simple too. To call it "primitive" might work, I suppose, as long as it is not a put down to the artist. The paintings are actually quite well done (I would dearly love to have some of the originals to frame for the house or office), and if you find that hard to believe, try doing one your self. The book covers several different animals, fox, coyote, bever, zebra, lynx and more. The kids seem to like this one and it is a nice book to read to them and then let them have a try. Don't underestimate this one. It is quite good and an excellent additon to any children's library.

My daughter is only 5 months old, however, the rhythm of the poems in Mammalabilia keeps her attention. We are able to read the whole book before she rolls away. She finds the large pictures to be captivating and "talks" right along with me as I read to her. I believe that this is a book she can grow with. What a wonderful way to introduct poetry to young children!

Love this book. My mum gave it to me as a child. I read it to my three children :)Very engaging with fun paintings and clever verse.

My three-year-old loves this book, Florian's poetry is simple, amusing and easy to read (again and again and again). Yes there are some less-than-acurate portrayals of animals (I can't believe no-one mentioned that the lemur is shown using a crutch and the rhebok is wearing ~gasp~ tennis shoes!) C'mon folks, reading is supposed to be fun!! If you are afraid your child we be confused by such frivolity, buy him/her an encyclopedia.