Animalogy: Animal Analogies

December 1, 2011

PreS-Gr 4-Use this rhyming book about animals with students to explain the concept of analogies. "Robin is to wing, as goldfish is to fin. Beaver is to build, as spider is to spin." Body parts, size, sounds, actions, and animal classification are all included in the examples. Detailed and realistic illustrations give moose, bears, and frogs a ready-to-jump-off-the-page appearance. The lion and dog look ferocious, but fit the pairing of "Dog is to bark, as lion is to roar." The final image shows a man reading Animalogy to children around a campfire with several animals from earlier pages in the background. Extensive activities are provided at the end of the book and online. The online activities feature cross-curricular lessons, learning games, and projects. This book makes learning about analogies, new vocabulary, and animals easy to understand and fun.-Nancy Baumann, University of Missouri-Columbia

Copyright 2011 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 15, 2011

Fauna are used to teach children about analogies.

Each spread presents readers with a phrase, "this is to this, as that is to that," accompanied by illustrations emphasizing that relationship. "Beaver is to build, as spider is to spin." From the tiniest ants to the mightiest lions, animals of all sorts are compared by size, sound, way they move and how they are classified. Most are solid analogies, although Berkes sometimes sacrifices word choices to make verses rhyme, and the analogies suffer. A few are not quite pathetic--"Rabbit is to nibble, as skunk is to dig"--and several seem to be worded backwards: "Amphibian is to frog as mammal is to moose." Extensive backmatter encourages readers to further explore analogies with questions and activities that lead them to think creatively about the ways in which the animals were compared in the text. Morrison's artwork is detailed and realistic, especially when it comes to the smaller species, each feather, fin and hair standing out in relief, though the pictures do not always fully illustrate distinctions.

Flawed, but it fills a niche that is otherwise almost empty. (Informational picture book. 4-8)

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