ajacks's review against another edition
4.0
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emersonernest's review against another edition
4.0
I'm torn. Spoilers ahead in the big paragraph.
Illustrations 5 stars. With exclamation points. Beautiful, descriptive, artistic. I want to go out and just buy prints of Tom Leonard's work.
Information 5 stars. Also, with exclamation points. Great choices of information, great to get a two year old and let them love this book until they're a marine biologist.
Writing 2 stars. This is what I'm torn up about. Maybe I'm picky, but I don't like alphabet books that claim they couldn't find four words that start with four different letters. That's an 85% success rate. Dude, it's cute saying once you looked on the internet for an appropriate sea mammal, maybe once, not multiple times. Also, just put narwhal under N and invent names. Q could be for Queen of the Ocean. X could be for Xenophobe for a mammal that doesn't like contact with outsiders. I'm not sure if it is a good or bad thing that the author reminds me of a 2nd grader that didn't do their assignment properly and says (literally) he "asked [his] mom." It is a bad thing for me.
I will buy this book, though I'm skeptical about reading his other alphabet books now...
Illustrations 5 stars. With exclamation points. Beautiful, descriptive, artistic. I want to go out and just buy prints of Tom Leonard's work.
Information 5 stars. Also, with exclamation points. Great choices of information, great to get a two year old and let them love this book until they're a marine biologist.
Writing 2 stars. This is what I'm torn up about. Maybe I'm picky, but I don't like alphabet books that claim they couldn't find four words that start with four different letters. That's an 85% success rate. Dude, it's cute saying once you looked on the internet for an appropriate sea mammal, maybe once, not multiple times. Also, just put narwhal under N and invent names. Q could be for Queen of the Ocean. X could be for Xenophobe for a mammal that doesn't like contact with outsiders. I'm not sure if it is a good or bad thing that the author reminds me of a 2nd grader that didn't do their assignment properly and says (literally) he "asked [his] mom." It is a bad thing for me.
I will buy this book, though I'm skeptical about reading his other alphabet books now...
debnanceatreaderbuzz's review
4.0
Life is quite serendipitous. Here I am slowly reading Moby Dick and along comes The Sea Mammal Alphabet. It's full of whales---I count sixteen out of the twenty-six animals pictured in the book, including Blue Whale, Fin Whale, Gray Whale, Humpback Whale, Melonhead (Beluga Whale), Pilot Whale, and, happily the Sperm Whale. It's a beautiful book, done all in lovely ocean colors of blues and greens, and it's stuffed with fascinating facts about these wonderful sea creatures.
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