Review of “Hide and Seek Alphabet with American Animals” by Anna Finch

Score: 95.8 out of 100 (9.58 out of 10)

Hide and Seek Alphabet with American Animals by Anna Finch is one of the best and most ambitious children's books of the year!

Anna Finch has proven herself to be a bona fide stud when it comes to crafting great books for children and young adults! Finch is a multi-time Outstanding Creator Awards winner for books like Mellie the Mermaid, Voiceless, and Hide and Seek Alphabet with Australian Animals. All of these were stellar books in their own right, however, Hide and Seek Alphabet with American Animals might be Finch's finest work yet!

So, what makes Hide and Seek Alphabet with American Animals so great?
Well, it really starts with the incredible illustrations by Andreea Balcan. What Balcan accomplished in the production of this book cannot be understated—nearly 60 pages of highly-detailed, life-like, and—best of all—HAND DRAWN animals and nature environments!

You and your kids will be enthralled with these cool, detailed, and adorable animals!

Speaking of which, that's another reason to love this book: the animals!
Now, everyone knows that cute animals are a quick way into our hearts (as they are for most people with hearts). We've already talked a little about how great the illustrations are. However, that's not all. Finch actually shines a light on each of these individual animals, even giving them unique and individual characteristics.

For example, all of these animals makes a different kind of sound. The chipmunks go “chuck-chuck chuck-chuck” while the wolverines go “grrrr-och.” Your kids will love making these animal sounds when asked, making this an engaging experience for them!

Each of these animals is actually given a human name, personalizing and humanizing them. For example, the baby deer's name is Donna. The jackrabbit's name is Jedi (hey, that's pretty hip)! This helps them to be relatable to young readers who can view the animals as more than just animals, but as living, breathing beings just like them who like to eat, sleep, hide, and play!

Speaking of hiding and playing, that's another great element of this book (and series). Throughout the reading experience, young readers are often invited to help the animals to find something/someone on the page as part of the hide and seek gimmick. For example, Grace the Mama Grey Wolf is looking for her wolf pups, but they are all hiding because they don't want to go to bed yet (how relatable). Readers are invited to help Grace to find her pups.

Lisa the Mama Lynx is also looking for her cubs. Ollie the Otter is looking for his friends who are swimming around the river. Isa the Iowa Barn Owl is looking for her family to wake them up, and readers can point them out to her. Humorously, Mama Virginia Opossum is hiding from her kid (Vela) because she wants to sleep.

This book highlights all sorts of amazing, interesting, cool, and cute animals from reptiles like the Texas Horned Lizard to rodents like the Utah Prairie Dog. It's also admirable that the author, who is from Australia, did the research and made the effort to highlight non-local animals, this time in America.

If there's one thing about this book that's a small complaint, it's that the words/names that are meant to correspond to each letter of the alphabet can tend to be a bit weird and hard to guess.

For example, if you pointed to a picture of a hummingbird, 99.9% of children (and people in general) would say: “That's a bird!” or “That's a hummingbird!”

However, this book expects you to guess “That's a Xantus Hummingbird!”

Yes, a Xantus Hummingbird is the author's choice to represent the letter X.

N is for Northern Cardinal (most would just guess “Cardinal” or “Bird”).

M is for Mountain Lion (it could just as easily be “Cougar” or “Puma”). So, a child who hasn't read the book could just as easily guess it's a cougar and puma, and they wouldn't be wrong.

Z is for Zebra Swallowtail Butterfly. Say that three times fast. That wouldn't be the first (or second) guess of most people.

Q is for Quail, which is simple enough, but then that becomes “Montezuma Quail” on the next page, which is a mouthful for most kids.

K is for Kit Fox. Yes, Kit Fox.

Unless you plan to tell your kid “no” or “sorry, close” the whole time, you might have to accept the fact that this isn't so much an alphabet book, but an educational animal book with the alphabet serving as an organizational tool (like a table of contents, almost).
And, who knows? Maybe this book could challenge kids and encourage them to take an interest in fields like zoology.

This is an outstanding book full of great, engaging content for children

Check it out on Amazon!