Monday, February 17, 2014

[BOOK REVIEW] Alligators All Around by Maurice Sendak



Title:  Alligators All Around

Author:  Maurice Sendak

Genre: Animals / Comedy / Alphabet

Year Published: 1962

Year Read:  2010

Publisher: HarperCollins

Series: The Nutshell Kids Library

Source:  Library

Content Rating:  Ages 4+  (Some Rude Behavior)

Buy on:  Amazon  //  Book Depository 



“Alligators All Around” is apart of the popular Nutshell Library by Maurice Sendak and it details a family of alligators showing the audience about learning the alphabet through various humorous phrases.  “Alligators All Around” is a brilliant book about teaching the alphabet in a creative way that children will love for many years.

Maurice Sendak had out done himself in this clever book about learning the alphabet through creative phrases.  Maurice Sendak comes up with some creative and hilarious verses to teach children the letters of the alphabet such as “A: Alligators All Around” and “D: Doing Dishes,” as he simply uses two words to describe each letter of the alphabet, making the book easier for smaller children to understand the concept of the letters of the alphabet.  Maurice Sendak’s illustrations may not be as colorful or realistic as his popular books “Outside Over There” or “Where the Wild Things Are,” but they are extremely creative as the characters are a family of three green alligators who are shown doing crazy antics that are representing the letters of the alphabet.  The images that truly stood out in this book were the images of the three alligators themselves as they have tiny black dotted eyes and have humorous expressions on their faces whenever they are doing something crazy in this book.

Parents should know that there is an image of a small alligator pushing a human child when the book approaches the letter “P”, which is “Pushing People” and parents might be a bit uncomfortable with having such an image presented to a young child who can easily imitate anything.  Parents should tell their children that it is not nice to push other children around and therefore, children should not imitate the image of the alligator pushing the children so often.

“Alligators All Around” is a brilliant book about learning the letters of the alphabet in a creative way that will have many children enjoying this book for a long time.  I would recommend this book to children ages four and up since the image of the alligator pushing a child might entice smaller children.  


      

2 comments:

  1. I loved these little books so much I bought a set for my granddaughter. I don't know if she still has them but they are wonderful.

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    1. That's great to hear! I haven't been able to buy the entire set of these (although I wished I had), but I had fond memories of Carole King's version of these stories!

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