Animal ABC

This is a simple ABC board book, themed around animals. The capital and lower-case letter and the appropriate animal name appear on each page, with no other text. The colours are strong and eye-catching. Each page has a brightly coloured, cartoon-style portrait of a smiling, friendly animal. There are some details to notice, such as the elephant wearing a little hat.

For the adult reader, perhaps the most interesting question about any ABC book is how the author has handled Xx – in this book, the X-ray fish does the job nicely. The inclusion of the unicorn (Uu) may prove controversial for some, as unlike all the others, it is not a real animal.

This is a simple, well-designed and produced book that children and adults will enjoy sharing together. It's sure to help babies and toddlers get used to the conventions of reading and learn to associate the sounds of some common, and less common, animal names with their pictures.