Alligators All Around

Alligators All Around

4.11 of 5 stars 4.11  ·  rating details  ·  944 ratings  ·  45 reviews
'An alligator jamboree, with all the letters ' A through Z.'
Paperback, 32 pages
Published March 15th 1991 by HarperCollins (first published January 1st 1962)
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Ronyell
“Alligators All Around” is apart of the popular Nutshell Library by Maurice Sendak and it details a family of alligators showing the audience about learning the alphabet through various humorous phrases. “Alligators All Around” is a brilliant book about teaching the alphabet in a creative way that children will love for many years.

Maurice Sendak had out done himself in this clever book about learning the alphabet through creative phrases. Maurice Sendak comes up with some creative and hilarious...more
Katie Fitzgerald
For the most part, I think this book is brilliant and maybe even the best alphabet book I've ever read. There is only one problem, and that is the one flaw that truly dates this book. For the letter I, Sendak shows the alligators "imitating Indians." Because I know this is considered offensive nowadays, due to the inaccurate and degrading way it portrays American Indians, that one page does prevent me from sharing the book with kids in a public forum. It also keeps from including the book in my...more
L11Beverly Kennett
Each letter is represented with a picture corresponding to the two or three word phrase describing what the alligators are doing. I liked the fact that the words need some thinking, a beginning reader cannot read them all by guessing from the picture alone. He must use decoding. I didn't like the "I" page, "imitating indians," though. The alligators are even wearing headdresses, holding a tomohawk and smoking a peacepipe. Stereotypical and not politically correct.
jacky
I was looking for books with alligators as part of letter A week with Natalie. Maurice Sendak was something I had to check out. I was quite happy with this book. While hoping for an actual story, I really liked that this alphabet featured the alligators throughout and that it consistently used alliteration throughout. I felt that the actions and descriptions, even though so short, actually developed character of the alligators to some degree.
Paul  Hankins
Can't miss, especially with the attention Sendek has received of late for his interviews with Stephen Colbert. Pair this one up with the segment from the animated classic featuring Carol King, REALLY ROSIE AND THE CHICKEN SOUP KIDS. I have this on VHS in Room 407 and don't think for a second that we won't be visiting this during our ABCs of Reading and Writing project later this year.
Paula
This particular book is taken from a larger work by Mr. Sendak called Really Rosie. Really Rosie is also a musical play for children and "Alligators All Around" is (in my opinion) the best song in the play. If you have a little one and you are sick of the regular "ABC" song, download this one on your iPod. I love singing it myself, and have a blast teaching it to children!
Terri
Yet another book in Sendak's Nutshell Collection that Carole King set to music in Really Rosie. What a wonderful, fun way to learn the alphabet. I used it with my own children and kindergarteners year after year. I even used it as a writing model with third graders to write their own alliterative alphabet tales. Sendak is a genius!
Nicholas
(Author/Illustrator study)

This is a fairly good alphabet book for young readers. Each letter of the alphabet is associated with actions (depicted by alligators) starting with the same letter. It could also be used as a study of rhyme and alliteration.

Note for teachers: This if one of four books in the Nutshell Library by Maurice Sendak. Because it was written in the 1960s, some language used is no longer politically correct (" I is for Indian" for example)
Ali
F is for fooling. G is for giggles. In this primer a family of alligators take readers through the ABCs. Maurice Sendak's little book is charming, and even though it's dated, it conveys the warmth and humor little ones desire always.
Justyn Rampa
This book teaches children the alphabet through a series of wacky situations involving a family of alligators. The illustrations are pretty funny at times as well as the sentences tied to the letters.
Yates Marie
This is another alphabet book. It is a story about alligators. This is not my favorite book because it has some stereotypes in it. (ex. Indians) The illustrations are pretty cute though.
Areshea
This helped my autistic non verbal son learn the abc's. He use to point at it and have me sing it repeatedly. He is verbal now and still loves, he sings it now with me.
Lesley
Fun little alphabet book, with illustrations of alligators doing something related to each letter of the alphabet. Classic Sendak illustrations.
Kari
Classic illustrations. A little difficult for my 5 year old guess what the letters stand for, but a fun book nonetheless.
Danny
We don't own this one, but my kids' love of all things alphabetical leads them to seek it out at friends' houses.
Tommy
We don't own this one, but my kids' love of all things alphabetical leads them to seek it out at friends' houses.
Robin Ramsey
My son loves this book along with One was Johnny. He has the whole thing memorized, and reads it over and over again.
Rebecca
Common theme is alligators, and the funny things they do, using verbs that progress with the alphabet. Illustrations match text - fun book!
Casey
Reading this book, I can hear Carole King singing the story to me, from my childhood.
Earl Dizon
"Alligators All Around" is fun little book for kids. The illustrations add so much!
Lia
Such a great alphabet ... so very tuned into that quirky side of childhood.
Natalie
simple early Sendak, quirky and short with a memorable family of alligators.
Tracy
I just didn't like this. I don't know what is wrong with me...
Catherine Woodman
Excellent classic Sendack with great illustrations and absurdities
Rachel
25 years later and I still know every word.
Lillian
I loved it. My favorite alphabet book thus far.
Lafcadio
B. Bursting Balloons.
Terri
Love, love, love this book.
Arielle
How have I not read this one before? I've read all the others in The Nutshell Library but somehow this one had escaped me. I need to buy the miniature box set for the bathroom. My friend Kristen in Minneapolis had a collection of miniature books that she kept in the bathroom, including The Nutshell Library. Her little girls said the books were small so the fairies could read them. I loved the idea that they believed fairies came to their bathroom to read books :)
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Alligators All Around (Hardcover)
Alligators All Around An Alphabet
Alligators All Around: An Alphabet
Alligators All Around (Hardcover)
Alligators all around: an alphabet.

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Maurice Bernard Sendak is an American writer and illustrator of children's literature who is best known for his book Where the Wild Things Are, published in 1963. An elementary school (from kindergarten to grade five) in North Hollywood, California is named in his honor.

Sendak was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Polish-Jewish immigrant parents, and decided to become an illustrator after viewing Wal...more
More about Maurice Sendak...
Where the Wild Things Are Chicken Soup with Rice: A Book of Months In the Night Kitchen Pierre: A Cautionary Tale in Five Chapters and a Prologue Outside Over There

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