We've been having so much fun reading Animalicious: A Quirky ABC Book that we decided to make our own Easy Animal Craft to go along with the book!
It's been well established here that I love books. But have I told you how much I love ABC books?
There's just something about a great ABC book that always appeals to me. I'm so captivated by all the imaginative ways that authors and illustrators come up with to introduce those same 26 letters.
Consequently, I've amassed quite a collection of ABC books. And I don't see the obsession ending anytime soon.
This clever book, Animalicious: A Quirky ABC Book by Anna Dewdney and Reed Duncan is the newest addition to our ABC Book collection. It's such a good one!
I was immediately intrigued by the premise: A Quirky ABC Book. Just how quirky can you make the alphabet, I wondered.
I was completely charmed and delighted as soon as I started reading.
All of my kids were interested right away, and even my 12 year old (who has long outgrown the alphabet books) had to stop and see what had everyone giggling so hard.
Animalicious: A Quirky ABC Book
Animalicious is an ABC book all about quirky, imaginary animals.
Instead of the expected P is for Python, you'll find a "Piethon" in this book with his tasty looking pie. He's joined by a whole cast of hilarious animal characters like the Blaboon, the Kangarude, and the Boa Constructor.
My favorites are all of the Ants - the ElegAnt, the IgnorAnt, and even the ExuberAnt.
It's such a clever ABC book filled with the most adorable, colorful illustrations, and wonderfully thick, glossy pages.
It's a fantastic book!
After reading the book, my older kids grabbed their sketchbooks and started coming up with their own quirky animals inspired by the book. (I'll show you some of their drawings over on my Instastories). They had so much fun with it!
But Rory, who is still working on mastering the ABC's at four years old, needed a little more help with a beyond the book craft.
We started with the letter R, for Rory of course! From there we decided to make some Rollimals!
How to make Rollimals
Using some leftover toilet paper rolls, we made Rollimals!
Depending on the age group you're working with, you could do this a hundred different ways. Because I was working with a four year old, I kept it very simple.
If you are crafting with older kids, they can make the animal faces on their own. With my four year old, I decided to print off Animal heads to start with.
We used these adorable Australian Animals, but you could also try African Animals, Farm Animals, or any of these!
Here's some more supplies you'll need:
- Toilet Paper Rolls
- Construction Paper
- Pom poms, ribbon, pipe cleaner, buttons, etc.
- Glue
I cut everything out in advance, but I left all of the assembly and gluing to the four year old.
The most fun part of all was naming all of our Rollimals! Inspired by all of the funny names in the Animalicious book, we created the following Rollimals:
- A Rolligator
- A Kangaroll
- A Rolby
- A Rollapus
- A Korolla
- A Sugar Roller
And this is just the beginning! Once my girls came home from school and saw what Rory and I had been working on, they started dreaming up ideas of their own.
Before too long, we're going to have a whole zoo here of Boximals, Canimals, and Rockimals!
It's going to be so fun. We owe it all to this seriously silly, absolutely delightful book: Animalicious: A Quirky ABC Book by Anna Dewdney and Reed Duncan. Get your hands on a copy ASAP!
I received a copy of Animalicious from the publisher for review purposes. All opinions are entirely my own.
Lyndsey says
This looks so fun! My kids are going to love the book and the great activity idea.