Book Box Thursday + Giveaway: An Alphabet Zoo

As some of you may know, phonics plays an extremely important part in our family, as we try and develop the literacy in EV and AA. There are a couple of phonics books that we use, and today, I’d like to share one that’s been a part of our literacy journey.

Photo: Julia Gabriel Education

It’s An Alphabet Zoo, Phonemic Adventure with Rainbow Bear, written by Julia Gabriel (read her interview on visual literacy here). This is a book and CD set that brings us on an alphabet adventure with Rainbow Bear to meet animals with names that follow the alphabet, such as Andy Ant, Freddie Frog, Ollie Octopus and Uncle Ultrasaurus. Each character is briefly introduced with a voice over, followed by a catchy song that also infuses the phonemic sounds of the alphabets.

What worked for us was the music. The tunes have been playing in our home and on our car journeys since EV was 18 months old. And for AA, he’s basically been listening to it since he was in my tummy. One thing I would like to share: music is a wonderful way to teach. And in this case, it was a wonderful aid in teaching EV and AA phonics, and often, EV and AA will sing or hum along with the songs. Of course, they do have their favourite ones, depending on which animal they like at that moment, but generally, the songs were a hit, and continue to be. This possibly is also due to the fact that all the songs follow the tune. This builds consistency and familiarity, and makes it easy for kids to identify the songs. However, this mummy wishes that the tunes have a bit more variety, for more exposure.

The book is equally entertaining, visually, with illustrations done by Kathy Creamer, a published British children’s book author and illustrator. Each quirky animal character has its own dedicated page and illustration, which infuses many things that start with the same letter within the illustration. For example, for letter K for Kara Koala, the illustration also depicts a key, kite and kangaroo. This means that when listening to the CD, it is possible to assimilate their listening with reading, with additional activities such as asking them to point out a particular thing on the page. More than that, I also discuss what is happening in the illustrations and what they think of the illustrations with EV and AA, to help build their visual literacy, important in today’s world when we are bombarded by visuals of every kind all around us.

An Alphabet Zoo brings together reading, listening and viewing, important literacy skills that we all need to develop in our kids. We thoroughly enjoy it, and we hope that you will too.

An Alphabet Zoo, Phonemic Adventure with Rainbow Bear retails at $29.95. And if you want to add a little more fun and drama, there is even a finger puppet set of 26 puppets that is sold separately at $116.60.

Giveaway!!

Here’s your chance to win a copy of An Alphabet Zoo, Phonemic Adventure with Rainbow Bear. There are five copies to be given away, sponsored by Julia Gabriel Education. Just follow the intructions below to enter. Good luck!

Terms and conditions:

- Entries that do not fulfill the requirements stated will be disqualified without notice.

- Winners will be notified by email, through the email address provided in the Rafflecopter widget.

- Winners must confirm by reply email, within three days. Otherwise, a new winner will be picked.

- This giveaway is open to Singapore residents only.

- Giveaway starts on 28 November and ends on 13 December (inclusive) at midnight.

- Winners will be announced on this post and my Facebook page by 17 December.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclaimer: This review was done with our own copy of An Alphabet Zoo, Phonemic Adventure with Rainbow Bear. No monetary compensation was received. All opinions are my own.

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