Animals Speak
PreSchool-K What do a donkey, sheep, duck, horse, bee, cow, pig, cat, dog, bird, rooster, hen, frog, and elephant have in common? They all speak. And in this book, they speak 41 different languages including English, Afrikaans, Farsi, and Romany. The endpapers provide phonetic pronunciation guides for all 574 words, while each spread includes the English word(s) and highlights four or five other languages. The illustrations are colorful and charming. However, the flags connected with each language are not labeled, and since there is no country of Farsi or Romany, some readers might want to know what nation the accompanying flags represent. Additionally, Retoromanian appears to be spoken in various areas since a blend of flags resides beside it, but it's unclear where this language is spoken. Children could use the vibrant picture clues to read the book, and may just fill in the animal sounds in their own language, despite the actual words on the page.Alexa Sandmann, Kent State University, OHCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.