My Animals

by Xavier Deneux

A black-and-white delight for babies and beyond!

Everyone will love Xavier Deneux’s stylish animal menagerie. With playful cut-outs and splashes of color, this high-contrast book is perfect for introducing favorites from our wild kingdom. You won’t want to put down this feast for the senses!

 

Genres: Picture Books, Animals, Childrens

18 pages, Board book

First published February 6, 2007

About the author

Xavier Deneux studied at Beaux-Arts de Paris. He has worked as a graphic artist, creating posters and decorations for various industries, and has illustrated more than forty children's books. He lives and works in Paris, France.

Reviews

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

A simple black and white picture book. The only words are the name of the animals that appear in each page.

There's no "story" to follow and it's difficult to create one to tell the little ones.
The pictures are ok, but the location of the holes and the image that shows of the page underneath, doesn't make sense with the main picture.

The review of a 10 month old girl:
The holes in this book don't capture my curiosity. I never stick my finger in there. The only picture that I'm interested is the one with the cat on the roof. I smile every time I see it. Bu it's a book, and I like to turn the pages while my dad speaks"

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

The high-contrast black & white illustrations, with dashes of color, are very nice. Not fussy or complicated, just clear and functionally fun. Rowan liked that and could readily identify many of the animals he knew the names of--"cow!" "pig!"--and do the sounds for them too. But what he was most here for, was the peek-a-boo ("PEEKY-BOO!") surprises. He had a great time with the circle holes, which of course are just balls for him. So finding the "ball" was great. The bonus was that where the hole landed also directed him to other words or expressions. The pages with the hole around the crocodile's and elephant's eye always got an exclaimed "EYEBALL!" The hole circling the panda's belly button always got a "poke-poke!" So. It was more than just animals and circles for us. Very fun. We approve!

[Christina Reid · Rating 4 out of 5]

We read this practically every day as Jellybean (10 weeks old) enjoys looking at the high-contrast images. There is no story - it is just cute black and white images of animals, but it is perfect for babies and their developing vision. The book itself is sturdy enough to stand up which is great for propping it up during tummy time to allow babies to try lifting their heads to look at it. A simple concept done well.

[Kimberly · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice, high-contrast board book that little ones can "read" on their own.

[Cheriee Weichel · Rating 3 out of 5]

The black and white illustrations with occasional splashes of colour are striking. My little 7 month old person did focus on the pictures and enjoyed my making the animal sounds for each one.

[J · Rating 4 out of 5]

I asked the toddlers I was reading this to what each animal was. They did a great job.

[Rosalind Andrews · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cool illustrations, but not enough to hold my attention

[Ebbe · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love the look of this book. But I am not a fan of having exotic animals in baby books. I don't see the point of teaching "crocodile" or "giraffe" as first words.

[Anna Redman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely high contrast book for baby's attention.

[jacky · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish I'd had this for Natalie when she was a very small baby since black and white images are supposed to be most appealing to newborns. The cover of this book is raised where the dog is white. There are holes in the pages for a piece of one picture to become part of another, which I thought was a clever touch. The only text was the names of the animals, which makes it easy for babies to focus and lends itself to naming later. I liked the selection of animals - cat, dog, fish, bird, but also giraffe, hippo, panda, zebra as well as a few others.

[Danielle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most of the illustrations are black and white with some splashes of color. Pages have cutouts that show glimpses of the past and upcoming illustrations that fit into the current picture quite nicely. The use of black and white will be great to use with newborns and young babies to help develop eye focus. Some of the words, such as hippopotamus, might be cumbersome for a young toddler trying to repeat the animal names. This book was initially published in France, so the animals choices might have something to do with the differences in languages.

[crashqueen73 · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is super super simple and would be ideal for the very young child or the beginning reader. From tiny babies that enjoy looking at black and white distinctions in colour, to young readers that could make the link between picture and word.

Each page of this hard cover books contains a super simple image on an animal and one single word. I can definitely see the appeal of this one for the very young, Kindergarten and below for this one.

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Received this as a shower gift from a friend, and it has never lost its appeal. The black and white is great, the simplicity of the text is great, and the illustrations are so darned awesome! Highly recommend this one to anyone and everyone.

[Brittany · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great black and white book for newborns! I love the modern illustrations and the animals that are covered in this book. Each page has a hole cut out which Alistair liked to poked his finger through.

[Courtney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another favorite of Odin's. Trav picked it up at the library and Odin's been enjoying it ever since. Poor kid's going to think the whole world is black and white.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

high contrast of black/white - attractive illustrations with circle cut-outs on each page that show through to page beneath. Alex loved the black/white pics! board book.

[Stevie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really cute!

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

My Animals offers the earliest readers in my classroom a book that they CAN read. (Plus, we all like the peek-a-boo holes.)