“A collage-based approach to the ABC’s. In both this book and the co-published The Amicus Book of 123, Lundie couples expertly rendered graphic collage with onomatopoeia-packed text to introduce children to the alphabet and counting, respectively. The illustrations in these books are particularly impressive, featuring layers and textures that make the images bounce off the pages: The jar of ‘jelly’ has satisfying globs of strawberry goo surrounding an octagonal jar. While the pictures in ABC are child friendly—including a friendly dinosaur, a goofy-looking goat, and a kite that swishes across the page—the images in 123, which include a fried egg and house plants, feel more adult. In both books, small missteps, such as choosing ‘ship’ for S in ABC, thereby using a blend instead of the phonetic sound, and placing six collaged bees atop a low-contrast waxy yellow background in 123 indicate a lack of familiarity with best practices for introducing children to letters and counting. Generally, though, the detailed pictures coupled with the verb-packed text in both books give readers a delightful feeling of motion, and the vocabulary and text are well suited to beginning readers who are just starting to recognize words and letters. With its companion, colorful, beautifully illustrated additions to the ABC and 123 shelves. ”
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The Amicus Book of ABC
A graphic paper-collage of familiar objects associates the letters of the alphabet with simple descriptive language to foster recognition and reading.
retail your price $8.99
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The Amicus Book of Animals
A graphic paper-collage of familiar animals associates their behaviors with simple descriptive language to foster recognition and reading.
retail your price $8.99
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The Amicus Book of Colors
A graphic paper-collage of familiar objects associates colors with simple descriptive language to foster recognition and reading.
retail your price $8.99
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The Amicus Book of 123
A graphic paper-collage of familiar objects associates counting with simple descriptive language to foster number recognition and reading.
retail your price $8.99
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The Amicus Book of Animal Homes
Where do animals live? What kind of homes do they build? From hives to webs, from dams to nests, this collage illustrated board book introduces toddlers and preschoolers to a wide variety of animal dwellings.
retail your price $9.99
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The Amicus Book of Earth
Travel the world in a book, and what will we see? From ocean to city, from forest to sky, this collage illustrated board book shows toddlers and preschoolers the beauty of the Earth.
retail your price $9.99
The Amicus Book of . . .
Unique collage art using recycled maps and marbled papers illustrates these gorgeous board books, while descriptive text and sound effects give young ones additional ways to explore. Perfect for igniting little ones' curiosity, these board books make an engaging one-to-one story time read.
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Complete Series of 6: your price $55.94
“Ah! Initially there was some fear that this would turn out to be yet another coffee table board book where the parents ooo and coo over the art and the babies would rather be chewing on the coffee table itself than read it. What Lundie does that stands out is engage in this delightful, chewy repetition that goes on with a lot of the people, places and things being featured. The artist, 'goes splat, splat, splat with my paint.' Jelly is, 'Yum, yum, so good in my tum.' And, yes, the art is magnificent. Not so high contrast that you’d use it with a very young child, but perfect for those squirmy one-year-olds at bedtime. Love it!”—Elizabeth Bird
“Meet a varied assortment of animals and learn a brief fact about each one. There’s no question that the collage-style art here is striking. Boldly clipped animals pose in a sophisticated, modern-looking palette of desaturated primary colors. Illustrator Lundie collages with innovative papers, including weathered graph paper, cardboard, and old maps. Put together, they create a deep, satisfyingly textured feel, as when an old map becomes a cragged iceberg behind aqua waves and a languid-looking narwhal. Textually though, the book flags. One-line factoids such as ‘Leopard: I’ve got too many spots to count’ are correct but bland. There’s no overt connection among the animals, which hail from many habitats, and their labelled sounds are random—why is the readily recognized toucan presented sleeping with a generic ‘zzzz’ noise? The end falls utterly flat, with a confusing raccoon page that suddenly breaks the predictable pattern by introducing a rhetorical question and a peculiar final page featuring a reprisal of all the animals making their strangely chosen sounds: ‘Oh no! It’s all of us. What a terrible noise!’ A companion book on colors features the same lively art but the same dull, nonsensical statements (‘Pink is a pretty color’); at least the ending, which asks readers to identify all the colors, is less strained. Extra-thick cardboard pages will hold up to multiple reads. Handsome but odd.”
“Ten homes for 10 animals—just right to intrigue little naturalists. Extra-thick, sturdy board pages are easy to turn. The text on each page uses a predictable format. The name of each home is printed in a large font, followed in smaller type by a simple declaration of who lives there, with the name of the animal slightly enlarged: “A dam is for beavers!” The text accompanying the final illustration of “a house…for people” adds a follow-up question—“Where do you live?”—that opens the door to more personal reflection. Animals included seem to have been chosen arbitrarily; there is no clear connection among the animals except that they all have homes. Some, such as the hermit crab’s shell, are quite specific while others, like the mole’s tunnel, are rather vague. Stylized drawings of each animal in its dwelling offer a bit more information for children. Many readers will linger to study the richly textured collage illustrations executed using newspapers, maps, graph and other papers in muted tones. A sound or action word commonly associated with the animal shown is included in each picture: “Neigh!” is near two horses in a stable; “Twitch!” is the rabbit’s action; and “Bubble!” and “Gulp!” float near two of the fish swimming in a coral reef. The beehive, alas, is incorrectly depicted as a paper-wasps’ nest. This simple yet sophisticated book should find a home on the board-book shelf. (Board book. 2-5) ”