Man Gave Names to All the Animals - Softcover

Music legend Bob Dylan has written more than 600 songs and his albums have sold more than 110 million copies around the world. He has won numerous awards including the Kennedy Center Honor, the French Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres, Sweden's Polar Music Prize, an Academy Award, a Golden Globe, and multiple Grammys. In 2008, Bob Dylan was awarded a Pulitzer Prize Special Citation for his “profound impact on popular music and American culture, marked by lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power.” Bob Dylan's highly anticipated 35th studio album, Tempest, was released in 2012. He lives in New York. Jim Arnosky is the author/illustrator of more than 100 books for young readers, and has been honored for his overall contribution to literature for children. He received the first lifetime achievement award for Excellence in Science Illustration from the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Washington Post/Children's Book Guild Award for nonfiction. His first book for Sterling, Wild Tracks, was a 2008 School Library Journal Best Book of the Year and a 2009 ALA Notable. Every one of his gatefold books for Sterling has earned at least one starred review, and Thunder Birds was included on the Bluebonnet Master List for the state of TX. Jim and his wife, Deanna, travel all over the US for school and library visits, meeting hundreds of kids every year. Visit jimarnosky.com to learn more. Jim lives in South Ryegate, VT.

PreS-Gr 2–Through vivid paintings of a primeval planet teeming with wildlife, Arnosky translates Dylan's 1979 song about the naming of Earth's animals into a gorgeous picture book. Full lyrics and a CD of the original song are included. In Dylan's narrative, Man takes note of the characteristics of various animals, including a bear, cow, bull, pig, and sheep, and determines a name for each creature. "He saw an animal that liked to growl,/Big furry paws and he liked to howl,/Great big furry back and furry hair./‘Ah, think I'll call it a bear.'" Children will have to supply the name for the final animal as he slithers away. Rather than the expected spotted cow and rosy pink pig, Arnosky features the burly undomesticated beasts that would have roamed during the earlier days of humankind. But the paintings are not without their dose of whimsy. Crocodiles and dolphins swim side by side and penguins line up beside a tiger, rhino, toucan, and other wildlife from various habitats. The effect is entirely in keeping with the imagined world of Dylan's lyrics. A list of 170 species appears in the back of the book, with hints on locating each creature on Arnosky's website. Beautifully printed with embossed cover and a surprise image beneath the dust jacket, this book will jump off library shelves and make a great keepsake for personal libraries as well. With its broad appeal to spiritual, scientific, and just plain animal-loving audiences, this book is a winner.Jayne Damron, Farmington Community Library, MI
© Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.