Abecedarios: Mexican Folk Art ABCs in English and Spanish

I love this book! What an amazing take on ABC's especially if you love Mexican folk art. Highly Recommended!

A beautifully bright book, each page displaying an original Oaxacan Woodcarving by the Jimenez family in Mexico. The whole family works through the entire process of completing each individual piece and the outcome are incredible, stylized, creatures that kids will not keep their eyes off! Every page consists of a picture of one of these Oaxacan animals, and a different letter of the alphabet. The craftsmanship would not be better, and the book itself is made with extremely high quality. Turning the pages it is so easy to see that every creature is a complete work of art. Children love the two languages that the animal's names are written in, my children (ages 2 and 4) repeat the English and Spanish animal ABC's right along with me every time. We have had this book for a week and they consistently have chosen it and want to "say" the animals- and tell me their favourites (over and over) again! You cannot go wrong with this book, I would even use it for babies as the pages are so incredibly coloured and bright I think they would love it, but it would be easiest for my kids probably between the ages of 1-5 to be completely taken by it. It almost feels like it is sunny outside, when here in Oregon all it is doing is rain. Looking at the pages, the colours lift you up and carry you to a much brighter imaginary place.

Always on the lookout for excellent children's books for my elementary school's library, I found this one at our public library and was immediately drawn to it by the colors. Each letter of the alphabet has a figurine of a handmade creature that begins with the letter in both English and Spanish (not all animals' names do so). I showed this to our Spanish teacher, who was very excited about the book, too. She commented that it would also give her an opportunity to use the "color" words. The paper is heavier than the usual ABC book, and it looks like it will hold up well for our "industrial use"! Adios, Amigo!

ABeCedarios is a bilingual English/Spanish ABC book featuring photography of stunningly beautiful carved wooden figures of animals, done in the Oaxacan tradition by sculptors Moises and Armando Jimenez. There is a carved animal for each letter of the alphabet (including the letters unique to the Spanish alphabet, such as n with a tilde), in this colorful and inventive way for teaching a young child their ABCs. Highly recommended; even adults will enjoy lingering over the unique animal artistry.