CROCOPOTAMUS

Mix and match the seven wild animals to create new crazy animals with silly names.

In this board book that opens from the middle thanks to vertically split pages, seven wild animals become a great many number of animals, as the front half of each one can be interchanged with the back half of each to create new, funny, and improbable animals. What can an elephant, a tiger, a crocodile, a zebra, a lion, a hippopotamus, or monkey become? A tibra, a likey, a zedile, a hippophant, or a crocoon, perhaps? The animals are illustrated in bold, bright colors and formed into simple, clear shapes that will appeal to young children. The sturdy pages are perfect for read-alone (or -together) fun for very young children. Older children ready to play with sounds and the smaller parts of words and their adult readers will enjoy coming up with silly new names—and trying to pronounce them! It is a rare find to have a book that so easily and enjoyably allows the practice of phonemic awareness, an essential pre-literacy skill.

With 49 possible combinations, this is a book that can be looked at over and over again. What fun! (Board book. 2-4)