All About Arthur

by Eric Carle

To cure his loneliness, Arthur the ape travels from city to city meeting other animals.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens

32 pages, Library Binding

First published September 1, 1974

About the author

Eric Carle was an American author, designer and illustrator of children's books. His picture book The Very Hungry Caterpillar, first published in 1969, has been translated into more than 66 languages and sold more than 50 million copies. Carle's career as an illustrator and children's book author accelerated after he collaborated on Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?. Carle illustrated more than 70 books, most of which he also wrote, and more than 145 million copies of his books have been sold around the world.
In 2003, the American Library Association awarded Carle the biennial Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal (now called the Children's Literature Legacy Award), a prize for writers or illustrators of children's books published in the U.S. who have made lasting contributions to the field. Carle was also a U.S. nominee for the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2010.

Reviews

[Janet]

Arthur was in Atlanta and he was alone. By the time Arthur travels to twenty five cities playing his accordion he has plenty of new friends. There is a great long alliterative silly sentence for each of the animalsArthur meets. Also every city Arthur visits corresponds to the ABC order.
I am very grateful to the library who has kept this title in their collection since its publication in 1974, some 56 years ago. Also thankful to live in a state which has a superb interlibrary loan system. What a treat to view one one of Eric Carle’s early works that is not bold and beautiful in color. All of the animals featured are shown in black silhouettes which are wood block prints! Plus Carle has used actual photographs to represent the alphabetic letter most of which were found on actual buildings. Love seeing the artistic development of children’s book illustrators.

[Daisy]

grades: Kindergarten and up

Summary: Arthur the ape goes on an adventure throughout the states. In his journey he meets various animals with peculiar interests.

Review: Carle does it again, introducing the alphabet while also introducing various elements of literature like rhyming and vocabulary. He also introduces new readers to unfamiliar animals.

Uses: writer's workshop, animals theme, vocabulary lesson

[Canette Arille]

I dont like the cover, but this book is nice

[Jeani]

Must have for sharing alliteration! The illustrations are gritty and contrasting and interesting! So unlike many children's books of today.

[Amanda Schwind]

This book gave me the idea for an activity.
Each creature introduced is only associated with items, actions, and characteristics that begin with the same letter.
Each student could be given a paper. They should carefully sound out their own name to figure out what the beginning sound is (phonemics: just focus on the sound; phonics: focus on the exact letter that it is). Students, then, must draw pictures of themselves along with items that begin with the same beginning sound.
Example: Amanda (^mænd^)
The "^" sound in IPA is what we will be trying to match for phonemics (example 1); phonics students will just think of words that start with the letter "A" (example 2).

#1:
umbrella
upset
undone

#2:
apple
ant
alligator

[Melissa Bradley]

“All about Arthur” is a fun book that keeps young children engaged and exited to see what each page has to bring. The pictures are fun to look at and go well with the text that is on the page. It is also an alphabet book so it’s a great book to bring into the classroom for the younger grades; there are a lot of ways you can make an activity with this book.

Arthur is an ape that is lonely and he goes on a journey to make some new friends. He goes to each city and is looking for other animal friends to hang out with. The book has a great ending and keeps the reader engaged in every way.

[Sarah Threlkeld]

The perfect book for introducing students to alliteration. It'd be great to have kids do a writing project after reading this that encourages them to write and illustrate alliterative paragraphs.

[Abby Morgan]

In this picture book, Eric Carle uses alliteration to draw in readers! The language keeps children interested and excited to turn to the next page!