ABCXYZ by Adrienne Barman

Funny flamingos, cute koalas, and orange orangutans are just some of the animals who bring the pages of this illustrated alphabet book to life!

ABCXYZ is not just any alphabet book! If your family enjoys learning languages you’ll love how each letter of the alphabet introduces you to animals that have the same name in different languages. For example, B is buffalo (in English), buffle (en Francais),  bufalo (in Italiano), búfalo (en Espanol) and Buffel (en Deutsch).

Adrienne Barman’s illustrations are large, striking, and full of character thanks to her quirky-eyed creatures . It’s a great follow-on from her book ‘Creaturepedia (Welcome to the Greatest Show on Earth)’ and is also full of wonderful pictures to ignite the imagination.

As well as finding this book fun to look at, we also learnt about some unusual animals such as the dromedary, jabiru , quetzal and narwhal.

About the author

Adrienne Barman spent her childhood in the highlands of Southern Switzerland and obtained her graphics diploma at Lugano. In 2001 she moved to Geneva, where she worked for five years with the collective SO2 Design while also working with Le Courrier. She also enjoyed being close to wildlife there. Since 2007 she has devoted herself to illustrating for publishing and press, and lives in Bordeaux, France.

Activity

Here are a few of my favourite hands-on activities that make learning about the alphabet fun for little ones!

• Fingerprint Alphabet Art by easypeasyandfun.com
• Hand-print animals by alltheinterestings.com
• Alphabet beans literacy game – theimaginationtree.com