Know someone who loves creatures? Animal lovers will fixate on this giant book presenting thirty-two big, bold images of friendly beasts.
From a star of children’s design in Sweden comes an exquisite array of animals rendered with whimsy and stylish splendor. Every oversized page highlights a different specimen, from an adorable sheep to an elegant flamingo, from an endearing hippo to a silly-looking snake. Each animal’s name appears in a different eye-catching type treatment, making for an attractive graphic keepsake sure to find a prominent place in nurseries and bookshelves everywhere.
Swedish Ingela Peterson Arrhenius was born in 1967.
Art and design has always played a big part of Ingela’s life and before her career as an illustrator took off Ingela worked as an art director in Stockholm.
Ingela then moved on to study advertising and graphic design at an art school in Stockholm, In 1992 Ingela set up her own business as a freelance illustrator working on an international level cross advertising, design, publishing and editorial work.
She’s been commissioned for creating print patterns for fabrics, wallpaper, stationary aswell as packaging, product design, home accessories and toys.
Ingela’s posters and designer toys are spread all around the world. She’s passionate about retro style in general which is clearly reflected in her work as well as her joy for typography and colour.
She lives in Stockholm with husband and two boys.
You can follow her daily business at her Instagram: ingelaparrhenius
I've requested selections from Candlewick Press in the past, and the Candlewick Studio imprint provided us with this unsolicited review copy.
Mom's Review (V)
Thirty-two adorable creatures are labelled in this enormous picture book. That's it.
With bright colors, fun fonts, and cute expressions, I'm not sure who enjoyed the whimsical renditions most. If it wouldn't destroy the book, it would be fun to decorate a kiddo's room with the poster-sized pages. My first thought upon seeing this book was, "So cute!" But then I asked myself what T would gain from a book of animals that he mostly already knew. Aside from reinforcing those animals, presenting a few new ones, and introducing the work of a Swedish artist, Animals provides a springboard for games. I recently found out that T never learned that a frog says, "Ribbit," (he does now), so we started with an animal sounds game. He has LOVED this! We just say the animal and then each make the noise if we know it. And if we don't, then I stream a video clip so we can see and hear the real thing. Have you ever heard a meerkat? Now we have! For our next read, we are going on a letter hunt, finding all the letters T can recognize. With a different font for each animal, it should be interesting. I had better expand my assessment of the book to cute and versatile!
Son's Review (T) (age 3 and 1/2)
Mom: Did you have a favorite animal?
Son: My favorite animal was the bear.
Mom: What did you think was the best thing about this book?
Son: I'll show you. So this is a meerkat. And this is a zebra.
Mom: What's the most important thing to know about this book?
Son: The important thing to know is that some animals bellow.
Mom: What's the best thing about this book?
Son: That flamingos are in the water.
Mom: This would be a good book for people who...?
Son: For G. Because flamingos are orangish reddish pinkish and G likes orange.
Thank you to the publisher for my ARC (Advance Review Copy) which was sent to me free to read with my children with no obligation to provide a review.
I have had the book for over a month now and I'll be honest that I'm still slightly torn about how I feel about it as on one hand the illustrations and layout of the book is just beautifully created (the illustrations would make beautiful wall pictures if framed) but on the other hand I am struggling to see why such a very large book would be needed in a home setting or indeed any setting other than where this would be read to a group of children.
My own children love the book and especially my youngest as she loves to sit turning the pages (with a little help from me) and trying to identify the animals but this is where the problem with the book lies in that she cannot turn the pages by herself as they are so large and as it is a paper paged book this is not going to withstand long term 'love' by a younger child. If this book were recreated in a smaller format or preferably as a board book then I wouldn't have hesitated to give it the full 5 stars but in its current very large format (the book measures 46cm long by 34cm wide by 1cm deep) it is not a practicable book. So wonderful for a group setting but too large for home use.
The book itself is a hardback book with paper inside pages. Each page features one of the 32 different animals with the animals name printed on the page to identify it and give the name for children to begin to learn to recognise. As I've already said above the illustrations are just beautifully done and I love the book in principle but not in practicality and as such I have given my book to my son's school nursery where they are absolutely overjoyed with it.
Excepcional álbum ilustrado, donde los mas pequeñños se familiarizarán con los nombres de 32 animales, desde los mas habituales asta los mas exóticos. Tanto si ya saben leer como si aún no, disfrutaran con las diversas tipografías de cada una de sus originales páginas en gran formato. Se caracteriza por una estética entre vintage y naif y por el uso de colores armoniosos.
Cool, stylized illustrations but the colors seem off and the book is MASSIVE. Too big to hold for a group read-aloud and the book is not study enough for a floor reading. I'm kind of at a loss with what to do with it, to be honest.
A simple book of animals that names a different animal on each page. Each animal illustration is cute and bold. I requested this book through interlibrary loan thinking it was a board book. To my surprise, it is really an oversized book.
I read the giant version of this book and it’s awesome! Fun illustrations, clear text, and just a great collection of animals for kids to look at and read.
Animals is a large (A3 size) heavy book. For this reason I feel that this book would be better suited in a nursery, childminders or school, rather than one to read together at home.
This hardback book is filled from front to back with pictures of animals in a random order. The pictures are large and bold, they look quite old fashioned too. On each page along with the picture is the name of the animal, this is all the text that you will find.
It is a lovely book with thick pages, so that children can flick back and forth without them tearing easily.
Young children always seem to have a fascination with animals, and I can see this book easily appealing to them. They will love looking at the illustrations and help them define which animal is which without the interference of a lot of writing on the page.
I received this book for free from the publisher Walker Books in return for a review.
This amazing book is filled with illustrations of many different animals all with a vintage feel.
This book is an amazing A3 in size and is hardback. Inside there are thick pages. Each page has a a lovely image of an animal drawn in what I can only describe as an old fashioned style. Apart from the animal picture there is also the name of the animal giving the chance for children to learn many different animal species and how to spell them.
A lot of reviews I’ve read question the point of such a book given its size and weight but this book is meant to be handed by both adults and kids and is something fun for kids to place on the floor and look at. It can also make for a good book for someone to show to a group of children as the pictures are very large as is the writing.
I really love the old fashioned style the animals are drawn in and this book is certainly one that appeals to me and I know I would have loved this book when I was younger. The retro feel of the images show the animals well and there is a focus on the image and name giving children a chance to learn the different animal species. What’s interesting is the variety of different animals in this book, from simple well known animals like cat, dog, cow to more exotic ones including a gorilla, lion and meerkats (which I just HAD to take a picture of!).
Overall I think this is a lovely book. Parents look at it with their kids and as long as you teach young kids to carefully turn the pages, imagine how amazing it is to get such a big book! (photos can be seen on amazon and my website)
'Ik heb oude spullen om me heen nodig' vertelt Ingela, dat is mijn grootste bron van inspiratie. Vooral kinderboeken uit de jaren 50 en 60 van de vorige eeuw zijn erg inspirerend voor haar. 'De layout, kleuren en illustraties kunnen zo prikkelend en overweldigend zijn. Vaak zijn ze maar in twee kleuren gemaakt, dat vind ik prachtig.' Maar ook oude kookboeken, bordspelletjes, potten, beeldjes e.d. inspireren haar. Het zien van deze dingen laden haar op, geven haar enorm veel ideeën en maken dat ze staat te trappelen om aan de slag te gaan.
Haar enthousiasme en voorliefde voor jaren 50 en 60 design is goed te merken in dit prachtige boek vol dierenafbeeldingen. In deze retro-achtige stijl heeft ze in totaal 32 dieren weergegeven op klein posterformaat (38 x 28,5 cm). Onder de dieren staat hun naam geschreven in een stijl passend bij de afbeelding en het dier. De naam van het schaap is bijvoorbeeld in krullende letters geschreven en het woord slang in dunne slingerende letters, de beer daarentegen staat met zijn stoere poten op de vier stevige letters die zijn naam vormen. Elke afbeelding is een klein kunstwerkje op zich. Ze zijn in matte, heldere tinten gemaakt en blinken uit door hun bedrieglijke eenvoud. Je zou ze allemaal wel aan je muur willen hangen. Terecht noemt de uitgever het kinderkamerkunst. Prachtig boek, om generaties lang van te genieten.
This is a HUGE hardback picture book full of colourful animal illustrations. This made for an interesting read - the book is genuinely the size of my torso, and not the lightest, so lifting it/propping it up for reading was pretty difficult.
Despite this, the illustrations are fun, super colourful and I liked that the name of each animal had been illustrated underneath to match their colour scheme or the pattern of the fur - a clever little touch.
Not a bad book, just not the most practical for a book aimed at such a young (and small) audience. Aside from lovely large pictures, it is very basic with not a lot to offer that a small animal flip book wouldn't have covered with less of an awkward read. I would have loved a more exciting book than just pictures of one animal and its name per page - even a small drawing of them doing something in their natural habitat would have spiced it up a bit.
This product was provided to me in exchange for an honest review; this in no way altered my opinion of the product.
A giant sized book with poster sized illustrations of a variety of animals. Each animal page features the name of the animal in unique font style. The art style is very fun and simple and bright. The animal is usually smiling.
This would be a fun book to have to look at with a pre-k or K classroom. Especially a classroom that is going on a zoo field trip. The artwork is fantastic! This is going in my Big Book Section!
This book is beautiful. The pictures are gorgeous because they are colourful and bright with clear text. It'd be perfect for teaching little ones names of more unusual animals outside of the standard British farm animals.
The book itself is a huge picture book making it a really tactile experience to read it because you have to hold it in two hands and being so huge it made me feel like a little kid again.
If you love picture books you'll love this. If you love the experience of books you love this. A real pleasure to flick through.
The illustrations in this book are gorgeous. They'd be perfect for decorating the walls of a nursery. But there's not much too this book. It's almost like an alphabet book, but the animals are out of order. It seems better suited for being a board book given the content.
Een boek met prachtige platen. Geen verhaal, maar de platen zijn zo mooi om te bekijken dat je het niet erg vindt dat er geen verhaal is. Zeker een aanrader!