D’Aulaires’ Book of Animals (New York Review Books

THE CELEBRATED HUSBAND-AND-WIFE TEAM OF INGRI AND EDGAR PARIN D’AULAIRE
prepared this exceptionally beautiful volume for their own son Ola, and it is as fresh and enchanting today as it was when it first sprung from their imaginations.
D’Aulaires’ Book of Animals introduces young children to the creatures of every continent. Here more than fifty animals lithographed in full color form one side of a book that can be read page by page or unfolded to form a continuous panorama; the flipside of the panorama reveals the nighttime world of the animals in the very same settings. Each tableau presents the subjects in their native environments—from the tropical to the arctic—and is rendered with the exemplary richness of color and delightful understanding of the children’s world that distinguish the d’Aulaires’ much-loved retellings of the Norse and Greek myths and their wildly playful Book of Trolls. Young children, meeting animals from all over the world for the first time, will be delighted not only with the animals themselves but with the simple and engaging text which provides information about the way they act, the world they live in, and—best of all—the sounds they make. D’Aulaires’ Book of Animals is not only a perfect picture book for preschoolers, but a work of art that can be enjoyed by all.