Horn Book (Sat Apr 01 00:00:00 CST 2006)

Oxenbury, who received the Kate Greenaway Medal in 1999 for her illustrations for Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, has now illustrated the companion volume. Her thoroughly modern Alice, once again dressed in jumper, tights, and tennis shoes, skips her way through encounters with Tweedledum and Tweedledee, the White Queen, and Humpty Dumpty.

Kirkus Reviews

This outsized companion to Zoo-ology (2003) follows the same format, presenting hundreds of thick-lined, accurately drawn figures, buildings and objects neatly packed together on a series of poster-like topical spreads. Linking with the previous title, Jolivet gives "Animals" an entry, but moves well beyond with pages devoted to "Tools," "Buildings," "Construction Equipment," "Fruits and Vegetables," "Musical Instruments," "Houses" and so on; each item has an inconspicuous label, supplemented by a later fact or two in a closing appendix. The spread of "Historical Costumes" shows a Eurocentric bias—particularly as it's followed by an array of "Costumes of the World" that could be more accurately labeled "Costumes of the Third World"—and some frank views of the "Human Body" will discomfit unwary adult viewers; still, children can look forward to hours of discovery from this splendid visual resource. (Picture book. 5-9)

School Library Journal (Tue Nov 01 00:00:00 CST 2005)

PreS-Gr 3 Following the same format as Zoo-Ology (Roaring Brook, 2003), Jolivet has taken 13 diverse categories such as trees and flowers, the human body, tools, and historical costumes, and illustrated dozens of objects both unique and commonplace on spreads almost two feet high. There is no attempt to maintain relative size. The hedgehog is the same size as the snail, the squirrel is smaller than the butterfly, etc. Extinct animals mingle with those that are not, and colors are not always natural. While some objects are specifically labeled, many are given only their generic name, e.g., duck or frog as opposed to mallard duck or red-eyed tree frog. The glossary provides more information, but some of it is misleading. The entry under crab states that these animals live between rocks on the seaside, a statement that is not true for the one pictured and the majority of others. The pages on the human body feature an anatomically correct male and female, as well as a silhouette of a child in utero. The linocut prints can be appreciated for their artistic quality and will be fun for browsers to pore over, but instructive possibilities are limited. Grace Oliff, Ann Blanche Smith School, Hillsdale, NJ