Shapes with Ocean Animals

Britta Santowski is a freelance writer in Victoria.

The Learning with Animals series for preschoolers focuses on five themes
presented through the world of animals—alphabet, colours, numbers,
opposites, and shapes. The books collectively portray more than 60
different animals. Unlike some series, none of the images are recycled
from one book to another.

Each book contains full-page brightly coloured acrylic paintings
placing the theme in context. There’s an iguana in a tree, an orange
tiger in the jungle, eight ducks in a pond, a walrus by an iceberg, and
a rectangular-shaped whale coming up for air in the sea. The pages are
consistently formatted, introducing the concept in the margins (a
colour, letter, animal, etc.) coupled with a full-page presentation of
the specific animal. The last page of each book (except for The Alphabet
...) reviews the concepts.

The Alphabet with Wild Animals covers the 26 essentials from alligator
to zebra. Colors with Tropical Animals introduces colour-wheel basics
with the three primary colours (red, yellow, and blue), three secondary
colours (orange, green, and purple), and of course, black and white.
Numbers with Farm Animals counts from one to 12. Opposites with Polar
Animals includes concepts such as north and south, wet and dry, and big
and small. Shapes with Ocean Animals includes the basics like a triangle
(fish swimming), a square (sting rays), circles (puffer fish), and a
star (star fish).

These books will especially appeal to younger children who are
intrigued by animals. Recommended.