Animal Alphabet

Bert Kitchen's Animal Alphabet, first published in 1984, is the rare debut that becomes a lasting classic. Each double-page spread presents a letter alongside a beautifully rendered, often exotic animal — quetzal, ibex, xenops — and readers are invited to guess the creature before checking the answer key at the back. The paintings are hypnotic and detailed in a way that rewards repeated looking. The guessing-game structure gives the book genuine replay value. Like any wordless alphabet book, it teaches no phonics, and a few of the unusual animals will require parental explanation. Neither is a real objection — the book is not trying to be a phonics primer. It is trying to be beautiful and to make children look closely at the world. It succeeds. Worth It.