Have you ever thought of a butterfly as a dressed up caterpillar? How about an eel being used to light up New York City? Animals, Animals by Eric Carle includes short, often witty verses from various cultures and authors to describe almost 70 different animals!
We really enjoyed this book, and think it would be great for parents to read to their children while running errands, since the poems are short but still entertaining. Another good use for this book could be for teachers to demonstrate haiku examples, or learning about a specific culture. Many of the poems are written as haikus, and a lot of the poems also represent a wide array of cultures from India to Hungary to Africa. The book could also be used solely as a picture bookfor younger children, since the illustrations are of such high quality.
One of the things Eric Carle is well known for are the wonderful illustrations in his books, and Animals, Animals is no exception. Some of our favorites included, the peacock and the owls, pictured below.
As a nice addition, the back of the book contains an index of animals and first lines of the poems. This would make it easier for a teacher or a parent (or you!) to find a favorite animal or poem. We would highly recommend this book, and as a final plug we leave you with one of our favorite poems from the book:
“What fun to be
A Hippo-potamus
And weigh a ton
From to bottamus.“
-Michael Flanders
If you like what you see, check out Animals, Animals and read even more poems about your favorite animals! Happy reading!
Juliana & Ali
Neely's News 
From top* to bottamus