ABC Animal Riddles

by Susan Joyce, Doug DuBosque (Illustrator)

Rhyming alphabet-based riddles challenge the reader to identify animals from clues, including the first and last letter of the word

32 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Born in Los Angeles California, Susan Joyce spent most of her childhood in Tucson, Arizona and returned to LA as a young working woman. Inspired as a child by postcards from her globe-trotting great aunt, Susan left the United States at age 20 to see the world.

She planned on being gone for a year, but ended up living her 20s and 30s in Europe and the Middle East. As a Jill of all trades, she worked as a secretary, freelance writer, taught computer classes, wrote songs, and became an accomplished artist while writing her first children's book, "Peel, the Extraordinary Elephant." An award winning author and editor of children's books. Susan has just completed a memoir of a twelve year 'roller-coaster' period of her life, titled "The Lullaby Illusion--A Journey of Awakening."

Reviews

[Julia Jasztal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mommy's review from 7/27/10 -


This book is different from any I've seen so far and I'd love to find some others. Each page starts with an animal's name that fits with the letter in the alphabet and instead of the name being put there for the child to see the child has to figure it out on their own. They get an illustration that helps but to be honest many of them aren't obvious and some thought is required.
For example:

s _ _ _ l.

Under the name of the animal is a short poem that helps the child guess which animal it is. "I start with an S and end with an L. My body is wrapped with a spiraling shell. I crawl at a pace much too slow for a race. When I move, you can tell by my trail of mucky jell. What am I? Can you tell?"
Very cute, very different and great for any kid learning the alphabet. Even better for kids learning how to spell and learning about sounding letters out.

[Billy · Rating 5 out of 5]

1. N/a
2. 1-3
3. Each letter has a unique animal. These animals aren’t named though. You have to figure it out by solving the riddle!
4. This book is fun and challenging. The illustration is pretty minimalistic and leaves a lot of empty space. The fun aspect of this is the riddles themselves though.
5. This book is great for not only the alphabet but vocabulary and working on comprehension.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

My kindergartener loves puzzling out these fun rhyming riddles. Great for phonological awareness.

[Jaclyn Kruljac · Rating 4 out of 5]

ABC Animal Riddles is a collection of riddles, one for each letter of the alphabet. Each riddle shows parts of a word beginning with a certain letter of the alphabet and then provides clues for students to guess the name of the animal based on their characteristics and habitat.

This book would be a great read aloud for young students pre-K-1. It demonstrates the structure of poems while engaging readers by asking them to solve the riddle beginning with the particular letter of the alphabet. This would also be a great way to teach phonemic awareness with beginning readers. This could also be used as a model text for students in grades 1-2 to create their own animal riddles when learning to write poetry.

[Amila Karabegovic · Rating 4 out of 5]

ABC Animal Riddles is a great book for children that are learning the alphabet. It not only teaches the alphabet but animals as well. This book is very bright and easy for children to follow along with. A good activity would be a field trip to the zoo.

[April Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

This fun book perfectly blends oral language with letter practice and nonfiction information about animals all in one! This would be a great read aloud for kindergarten, or a good book for a 1st grade classroom library. Students will have fun trying to figure out which animal each riddle is describing.