"A rhyming, ABC adventure picture book that introduces readers to the most unique animals from around the world"-- - (Baker & Taylor)

This passport to an alphabet adventure brings readers up close and personal with the most unique animals from around the world. 30,000 first printing. Illustrations. - (Baker & Taylor)

Incredible animals await in Catherine Macorol's A Is for Axolotl—not the tame or the merely wild, but the strangest, most fascinating creatures of all!

Readers will join an alphabet adventure that spans the globe as they climb trees with the binturong (also known as the bearcat), glide through the rainforest canopy with the colugo, and deep dive with the Dumbo octopus.

Get ready for close encounters with axolotls, binturongs, colugos, dumbo octopuses, echidnas, fossas, gerenuks, hyraxes, ibex, jerboas, kiwis, lorises, maned wolves, naked mole rats, okapis, pangolins, quokkas, red pandas, saigas, thorny dragons, uakaris, vaquitas, water bears, xenopus, yeti crabs, and zebra duikers.

Catherine Macorol is a graphic designer who lives in Alexandria, Virginia. She loves gardening, painting, reading, camping, and the outdoors. A Is for Axolotl is her debut picture book. - (McMillan Palgrave)

Kirkus Reviews

A zoological introduction to the letters of the English alphabet. Rhyming text, interesting animal facts, and lesser-known global wildlife come together in this letter recognition primer. Using the traditional, familiar "A is for…, B is for…" pattern, the text introduces readers to the axolotl, binturong, colugo, dumbo octopus, and more, ending with "Z is for the Zebra Duiker." Each entry includes two short, intriguing tidbits about the animal's behavior, physical characteristics, or country of origin. Readers will learn that the fossa lives in Madagascar, the gerenuk eats standing up, and the pangolin is covered in keratin scales. To provide children with reference points, Macorol mentions some of the animals' better-known relatives—the okapi is kin to the giraffe, the hyrax is "cousin to elephants and manatees," etc. The creatures are shown in their various natural habitats, and a map of the world at the beginning of the book reveals the continent on which each critter is found. Large, thick, uppercase alphabet letters in different colors allow for tracing and easy visual processing of letter shapes. Much of the vocabulary will be unfamiliar to children; this, coupled with challenging words like monotreme and retractable, makes the book best suited for independent readers looking to stretch their skills. Although the rhymes sometime struggle for scansion, Macorol's roundup of unusual fauna is engaging. The bold, multitextured digital illustrations often depict the animals gazing quietly at the reader, inviting us into their fascinating worlds. An informative abecedarian tour of the animal world but not one well suited for early emergent readers. (Informational picture book. 6-9) Copyright Kirkus 2022 Kirkus/BPI Communications. All rights reserved.