A Big Treasury of Little Animals

Spangenberg, Judy and Phoebe Dunn. A Big Treasury of Little Animals. Random House, 2007.

This collection of animal stories was written between 1977 and 1987 by Judy Spangenberg. Six stories separately follow the adventures of a lamb, a puppy, a kitten, a rabbit, a duck, and a pig. Each story is accompanied by photographs taken by Phoebe Dunn. The photos vividly capture the text, which considering the artist was working with animals is quite a feat.

The stories are a bit too long for one sitting with little ones; each story is about 30 pages. But the photographs kept Snugglebug interested in the story for the entire length of his short attention span. Each story is strongly formulaic in that it begins at the animal's birth, continues with a child being the new owner, and is followed by the animal making all types of discoveries and getting into various types of mischief. Ladybug was a bit bored with the formula after the first two stories but Snugglebug didn't seem to notice.

Overall, Ladybug and Snugglebug would say this is a good collection of stories but not the greatest. The photographs definitely make up for the lack of diversity within the text.

© Becky Laney of Young Readers