'The best books, reviewed with insight and charm, but without compromise.'
- author Jackie French

Wednesday, 21 July 2010

Review: The Number One Aussie Alphabet Book

It's no secret I'm totally enamoured by McKenzie's books, and this glorious A-Z is certainly number one in my book ('scuse the puns). Cataloguing the authors penchant for exquisitely colourful and humorous illustration, The Number One Aussie Alphabet Book may follow a tried and true format... er... A to Z... but boy does it do it in style.

We have such a celebrated and diverse collection of fauna in our country, it's a joy to see both familiar and not so familiar animals dot the pages of this book, from the common garden-variety Ant to the Zebra finch and lots of venomous beasties and cuddly creatures betwixt.

Thanks to a deeply entrenched aboriginal language, we've been blessed with more than a few Aussie-animals starting with the letter K (McKenzie can't help himself and features two of them for the prestigious K entry) and we even have an entry for Q - can you guess which animal it might be? We actually have a few.

Kids of all ages will love returning to this classic Australian A-Z. Packed with humour-filled and lustrous illustrations that will have many a kid pointing and giggling and openly commenting (we so want that from books!), McKenzie accompanies his visuals with curling, rhyming text, that introduce us to each smile-inducing critter.

Just keep little fingers away from that toothy crocodile!

Author website

Title: The Number One Aussie Alphabet Book
Author/Illustrator: Heath McKenzie
Publisher: Black Dog Books, $14.99RRP
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9781742030098
For ages: 0+
Type: Picture Book