Llamas with Lemonade: An Unusual Animal ABC

The board book Llamas with Lemonade: An Unusual Animal ABC is an excellent introduction to the alphabet. Each letter is presented on a separate page in both its upper and lower case forms and then appears twice in the page’s brief text in lower case as the first letter in a noun. As can be seen in the excerpt above, the first line of the text names the “letter” animal while the second line provides the second use of the target letter by naming the “with” object. Many youngsters will likely quickly pick up on the text pattern, and, if they recognize the illustrated animal, may begin to “read” the book by themselves. Unlike some themed alphabet books that “stumble” finding examples that logically and smoothly connect with the challenging letters of the alphabet, like “Qq”, “Xx” and “Zz”, such is not the case with Llamas with Lemonade.

Those youngsters who strike off “reading” the board book independently might, understandably, occasionally find themselves at odds with Koultourides’s text. For instance, the jaguar has a “jump rope”, but some children may have only previously encountered the term “skipping rope”. “Rr” and “Ss” offer the “independents” choices. The text identifies that the rabbit is wearing “rainboots” but the accompanying illustration reveals the bunny has also donned a raincoat. The squirrel’s text draws attention to the “socks” on its feet, but the cartoon rodent also sports a scarf and sweater.

The term “unusual animal” in the book’s subtitle has at least two meanings, with the most obvious being that the animals found in the book will not likely be familiar to the volume’s very young intended audience. Consequently, there are alligators, jaguars, koalas, newts, urchins, x-ray fish and yaks. Even when a more common critter, like a cat, appears, it illustrates a second meaning of “unusual” in that the animal is not behaving as it usually would in its natural state. Consequently, the anthropomorphically illustrated cat is wearing a camera around its neck (In today’s cell phone world, the child’s question might be: “Mommy, Daddy, what’s a camera?)

The book’s cover illustration accurately reflects the page design utilized throughout this board book. The text always appears within the white circle with Koultourides’ whimsical cartoon-like illustration of the letter animal being located to its left. Both the text-ball and illustration are placed against a solid colour background with the background colours of the two-letter spreads rotating through yellow, pink and blue. The endpapers provide a bonus in that Koultourides repeats the alphabet and the illustrations but without the text. Youngsters can then essentially treat these two pages as a wordless “review” book.

Alphabet board books are foundational volumes in home libraries as parents function as their children’s first teachers. As an introduction to the alphabet, Llamas with Lemonade: An Unusual Animal ABC is a must-buy at the home and institutional level.