The Guinea Pig ABC

by Kate Duke

An entertaining and educational alphabet book features a host of beguiling guinea pigs involved in all kinds of antics and adventures

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Animals

32 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1983

About the author

Duke was born in New York City on August 1, 1956. She had said that reading was a favorite pastime all through childhood, and in an interview for Something About the Author noted that Louise Fitzhugh’s Harriet the Spy was a fictional character she modeled, right down to keeping tabs on the people in her neighborhood. “I think I owe Harriet my first conscious awareness of the act of writing as important and meaningful work,” she said.

She attended Duke University in the mid 1970s and also took art classes in New York City, which helped solidify her growing ambition to create picture books. Her first book, The Guinea Pig ABC (Dutton) was published in 1983 and received warm accolades for its humor and inventiveness. She followed up her debut with Guinea Pigs Far and Near (Dutton, 1984) and several other titles starring the popular critters. Duke went on to craft more than 20 picture books, writing and illustrating her own work, as well as providing illustrations for other authors including Joanna Cole and William Hooks. Duke married cartoonist Sidney Harris in 1985.

Reviews

[Hilary · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautifully illustrated ABC featuring guinea pigs. A must read for cavy lovers!

Read on openlibrary.

[La Coccinelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think there's probably an alphabet book for every theme under the sun! This one covers guinea pigs, and highlights the 26 letters of the English alphabet with cute, cuddly cavies.

The selection of words is quite nice, and each illustration provides a basic definition of the word in question. Q, X, and Z are always tricky when it comes to alphabet books, and this book falls back on the oft-used "Zzzzzzzzz" for the last letter. (The X page is even more of a stretch, but the accompanying illustration is so cute that I'll give it a pass. Besides, even though the word doesn't start with X, the X is highlighted so that it's easy to see the letter.)

I don't think I've come across Kate Duke's illustrations before, but her guinea pigs here are adorable. This is a pretty strong alphabet book that adults will probably enjoy perusing as much as kids.

Quotable moment:

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Part of the preschool program is to get the four-year-olds in my class ready to read with pre-reading skills. Alphabet awareness and vocabulary building are two of these skills. I collect alphabet books and The Guinea Pig ABC is a simple ABC book with a big letter, guinea pigs acting out the word for each letter and introducing new words to the children. It is easy to stop and talk about the meaning of a new word. The illustrations of the letters are large with the characters places on and around them to get their meaning across and give good examples of what each capital letter looks like to increase letter recognition. The book is simple; the learning from it is great when used to expand pre-literacy skills. The gives a good teacher the basics and he/she needs to use it to start discussions with the children, which is a sign of a good children's book.

[Ina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not only does this book contain all of Kate Duke's amazing guinea pigs - which convey so much emotion and life - but there is great humor present in this Alphabet book. "A" shows a smug drumming guinea pig beneath a clearly startled guinea pig with night cap flying off his head and the word, "Awake." "C" stands for clean and shows a young guinea pig scrubbing himself, but not looking very happy. Every letter is a joy, almost all are guaranteed to bring a smile.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another enabler for my ABC obsessed toddler. I liked that this one had some seldom seen words for each letter, like ferocious, kind, and mean. New concepts to explore with my 2 1/2 y.o. My favorite was upside-down, which I was not allowed to turn the page until he turned the book upside down so he could see the guinea pig right-side-up! I think he got that concept pretty quickly.

[Rena Sherwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was phenomenal. It helps to be a guinea pig lover to appreciate some of the humor and artwork, but you don't have to be. For an ABC book, there's a lot going on.

The pictures are detailed. Give a good, long look to see if you can spot everything. Some are more detailed than others. My favorite was Wobbly for W, as even the letter is used in illustrating the word.

I wish I had this book as a kid. Somehow, I missed it, even though I was about 14 when this was first published. I can't have guinea pigs anymore because of my dogs, but at least I can enjoy guinea pig books like this.

I read this on the Open Library, which used a digital scan of the original hardback book. It even included the back cover.

[Christina · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I read this book to my children tonight, my daughter was tickled by the popcorn page. But I think we might find a new favorite each time we read it. Or sing it. We often enjoy setting the text to song in our read aloud. One of our favorite alphabet books. Just perfect for interesting our youngest preschooler in the subject of letters.

[Joy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Delightful, gorgeous picture book.
To my great surprise, the guinea pigs’ front toes are not anatomically correct in any of the pictures! They all have 3 front toes and 3 back toes in the pics, so I guess Kate Duke doesn’t realize that guinea pigs actually have 4 front toes! But otherwise delightful!

[Christina Erickson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thrifted this for my client book basket, kept hoping no one would choose it, and finally took it for my own future-kid bookshelf because HAVE YOU EVER SEEN ANYTHING SO CUTE. Just a bunch of guinea pig illustrations while you’re learning the alphabet? Stop it.

[Nichole · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very simple alphabet book with cute illustrations of guinea pigs.

[Grace Wagner · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love piggies.

[Jessica Tracy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute illustrations! I have a weakness for guinea pigs, so a normally three star rating got bumped to four. A quick cute read.

[Irini · Rating 4 out of 5]

cute book, basic alphabet book with fun illustrations!

[Theresa · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Guinea Pig ABC (Paperback)
by Kate Duke
kindergarten, skills book, introducing A b c concepts to kids, a cute book that looks a the letters and makes it where children can connect to the terms

[Peggy Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best ABC books ever.

[Sammie Ortiz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pictures were creative. This is a very easy read, recommended for the very young age, maybe even babies' book!

[Marineke · Rating 5 out of 5]

refreshing abc-book using words that are not the usual ones and illustrations that make you smile