The Amazing African Animal Alphabet

Book excerpt: This illustrated alphabet book showcases African animals and other objects that local children will recognise. To enhance basic letter recognition, the left-hand pages feature bold, full-page letters in upper and lower case that are large enough for small fingers to trace around to practise each letter shape. Each illustration includes a single sentence introducing an animal. The sentence structure is the same for each animal, to encourage reading due to the repetitive nature of the text. The names of each animal have been carefully selected as common names in Southern Africa. Built into each illustration is a series of items or actions that begin with the featured letter of the alphabet. Children are encouraged to find all of the things that begin with each letter. This aids in phonetic processing as each word needs to be said aloud to determine whether it begins with the correct letter.