Eric Carle's collage style is beloved by many, and the illustrations in this anthology are engaging and colorful. Indexing in the back assists readers with finding animals they are studying. 
 Poems collected by Laura Whipple feature a variety of sources and styles ranging from Shakespeare to Kipling to the Bible to Japanese haiku to American Indian poems and anonymous contributions. 
 This book has won numerous awards and is highly recommended by several sources we consult in building our reading lists. 
 These are all strengths of the book. However, for some reason, this work just didn't 'click' with us quite as well as Mary Ann Hoberman's "The Llama who had no pajama". Why? I don't know. We were a bit older when we read "the Llama..." and perhaps that is key. Maybe it just wasn't to our 'taste'. Nonetheless, it is a worthy addition to our poetry collection and I'm sure we'll use it again. Maybe it will take next time?