A Gaggle of Geese and Other Animal Groups

School Library Journal

PreS-Gr 2-Vibrant, almost fluorescent full-page illustrations present the collective names of 26 animals. One phrase per page flows in a rhyming pattern: "... A knot of toads scrambling; A rookery of penguins stooping; A drove of pigs ambling; A flight of butterflies swooping." The animals themselves are shown rising from the more subdued backgrounds and are not necessarily true in color to their real-live counterparts: zebras have red, black, and pink stripes; leopards sport turquoise and red spots, etc. At first, this bit of artistic license is a little jarring, but it makes for quite a dramatic presentation. Size considerations are not taken into account and some of the animals will be hard to identify; the bears look more like weasels, the blue squirrels like rats. Appended notes give background on the origin of the collective names and brief information about each animal. A striking, although additional, browsing book.-Beth Irish, Orange Public Library, CA