Alphamals by Ruth Symons and Graham Carter (Big Picture Press)

You're really spoilt for choice these days when it comes to fabulous alphabet books.
Animals seem to help kids learn their ABCs better than anything else, so here's "Alphamals", a superb and quirky collection of the familiar and unfamiliar amongst the animal kingdom.

Each page comes with a truly superb illustration by Graham Carter (here's a switch, a book that puts the illustrator on the front cover but not the author!).

Lyrical and poetic descriptions of each animal are also featured, so you'll learn about everything from Charlotte's favourite animal (the Aardvark) to one of mine (Who doesn't love X-Ray Tetras, if for no other reason than to give poor Alphabetical compilers something to stick under "X")

The illustrations really are amazing though, very stylised but wholly eye catching and original.

Awww, newts are cute (says Charlotte!)

I think the toughest thing about this book is trying to work out who it's aimed at. It's a bit too 'nice' to let your ABC learning toddlers anywhere near, but as a parent-child book, the lovely verse (which just begs to read aloud) and the glorious colour pics make this a bit of a winner.

Yakkety Yak, do come back!

"Alphamals" is out now, published by Big Picture Press (Kindly supplied for review)