David McPhail's Animals A to Z(PB)

Animals are just one part of this wonderful picture book that contains 26 engaging illustrations, each one an entire world of color and whimsy in which nearly every detail corresponds to a featured letter. A gorilla sits beneath a grapevine and plays guitar to a goose wearing glasses. On a mountaintop bathed in moonlight, a moose meets a mouse sitting atop a mushroom. A solitary swan sails silently under a starry sky.

David McPhail's humor is apparent in his picture of a ketchup-eating kangaroo, but so is his sense of mystery in his rendering of an owl clutching fast to an orange. His animal characters are as full of life as the pictures they inhabit, and readers of all ages will surely find themselves studying each page to find as many of his clever details as possible - and perhaps even be inspired to come up with additional animals and words of their own.