Alphabet Alliteration Activity and “Animalia” Book Review

by Kathy Porter

I like unusual alphabet books that introduce complex vocabulary words to children. Some children thrive on ‘big’ words and pronunciations. Animalia, written and illustrated by Graeme Base, is one such book. Not only do children learn ‘out of the box’ words, they learn the names of many exotic animals. Diabolical dragons, anyone? Each page has a caption that uses the featured letter to describe the animal. For instance, “Diabolical dragons daintily devouring delicious delicacies.”

This alphabet book is different from most of the others due to the plethora of small illustrations that begin with the featured letter. Carrying on with the ‘D’ theme, a child can identify donuts, dynamite, disaster, double decker bus and a dirigible to name only a few of the dozens of illustrations to find on just one double spread page with 26 letters left to peruse.

Graeme Base has also included a small boy in blue jeans for readers to find on every page.

Look for this book at your local library on the B self of the picture book section. If not you can find it on Amazon here.

Play with alliteration using your name as a guide.

Supplies:

Free activity sheet and a pencil.

Directions:

1. Write the child’s name vertically inside the rectangle on the activity sheet.
2. The child tells or writes a few words next to each letter, in the blank area that begins with the same letter. Use the pictures in the book for ideas.
3. In the box at the bottom, have your child draw their favorite word from all the words they picked.

Different Variations:

• For Older Children: Write a sentence with a word for each letter of your name.

Example:

King

Abe

Tastes

His

Yogurt