Animal Albums from A to Z

Description

From the inimitable creator of El Deafo, this all-ages alphabet book is also a hand-wrought, high-fidelity, hilariously tongue-in-cheek homage to the golden days of album cover art.

Cece Bell loves music and collecting old record albums, her introduction explains, especially albums featuring animal artists. The bouncing harmonies of the Barbershop Beagles, the elegant crooning of the elephant Ella Fontaine, the hilarious rhymes of the Hip-Hop Hedgehogs—all are represented in this quirky ABC book that draws on the creator’s personal collection of albums, memorabilia, and lyrics dating between 1944 and 1984, the heyday of album design. With wry, witty text, silly and sumptuous sound play, and biographical end matter on all twenty-six musical acts, the book commands and stands up to repeated readings. Bright, zany art—all painted and lettered by hand—a stellar design, and an album-size trim make it a collector’s item in its own right, sure to grace the coffee tables of vinyl- and design-loving adults even as it tickles young funny bones. A hootenanny hosted by the creator of the Newbery Honor Book and Eisner Award winner El Deafo, Animal Albums from A to Z also quietly reminds us just how much music can mean to everyone.Tongue firmly in cheek, Bell explains in her introduction that she’s a collector of records by animal musicians, from the 1940s to the ’80s. . . uproariously funny, clever lyrics. . . Hilarious, high-stepping tributes to a musical niche that never was.
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Newbery Honoree Bell creates an entire high-fidelity world with this clever, irresistibly prodigious abecedarian, which features album cover art and one song’s worth of liner-note lyrics from 26 invented animal recording artists. . . . For new listeners and seasoned audiophiles alike, this rigorously imaginative tour de force—conjured up from collaged, hand-painted paper and even a little embroidery—displays Bell’s goofy, deeply affectionate, no-detail-left-behind creativity, which turns each rockin’ concept “up to 11.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

A sheer delight for all ages! Cece Bell’s picture book pays homage to music both through her lyrical poems—er, SONGS—and the stylish album covers that go with them. Unique, hilarious, and beautifully illustrated, Animal Albums from A to Z will have readers singing along!
—Lorie Barber, Anderson’s BookshopCece Bell is the creator of the graphic novel El Deafo, which was a Newbery Honor Book and a Will Eisner Comic Industry Award winner, the Geisel Honor Book Rabbit and Robot: The Sleepover, Rabbit and Robot and Ribbit, I Yam a Donkey!, Bee-Wigged, Itty Bitty, the Chick and Brain books, and the Sock Monkey series. She has also created books with her husband, Tom Angleberger, including Crankee Doodle and the Inspector Flytrap series.CN

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