Carnival of the Animals

by John Lithgow, Boris Kulikov (Illustrator)

But oh! what a fabulous night he had had,

When his world was turned into a zoo!

After wandering off from a school field trip, a young boy falls asleep in the Natural History Museum. There he sees his classmates, teachers, and family transformed into a menagerie of animals, from wild hyenas to stately peacocks.

John Lithgow's exhilarating word play, inspired by Camille Saint-SaËns's 1886 composition, provides a narrative arc to the piece for the first time. Lithgow created the text for the New York City Ballet, where the Carnival of the Animals ballet, with his narration, debuted in 2003. Boris Kulikov's witty artistic interpretation of the story adds to the fun.

A new recording of Saint-Saëns's suite, performed by Chamber Music Los Angeles under the direction of Bill Elliott, complete with John Lithgow's recitation of the text, is included on an enclosed CD.

Genres: Picture Books, Music, Fantasy, Childrens, Animals, Poetry, Fiction

40 pages, Hardcover

First published August 31, 2004

About the author

John Lithgow is a prolific actor with two Tonys, six Emmys, two Golden Globes, and two Oscar nominations to his name. He has starred in the hit TV series 3rd Rock from the Sun, Dexter, and The Crown, and in beloved films like The World According to Garp, Shrek, and Terms of Endearment. Lithgow has appeared on Broadway twenty-five times and in England with both the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre. He is also the bestselling author of nine children’s picture books, and his recordings for kids have landed him four Grammy nominations.

Reviews

[Gina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel almost the same way about this book on a second reading as I did the first time around. I still don't care very much for the style of illustration, but the poems were more enjoyable than I remembered. I imagine it would be great fun to see this actually performed, especially if Mr. Lithgow were to reprise his role as the nurse.

Previous review
I liked it with the music that goes with it.

On its own, the style of illustration was off-putting to me and the poems were overall less engaging than with the beautiful instrumentals to go along with it.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Got this book with CD and it's beautiful. John Lithgow's narration of the book is excellent.
A boy falls asleep in a museum on a class trip and dreams of his classmates, teachers, etc all transformed into animals. On the CD the reading of each page is followed by a section of music from the ballet performance. It would be great for a music lesson because the kids could hear how the music sounded like elephants or a bird or whatever. Really a fun and gorgeous book to read and listen to.
(FYI for teachers - the book does refer to donkeys as jackasses and roosters as cocks, which a certain age of kids might find highly entertaining)

[Whitney · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a really fun book and one that goes along well with the Carnival of the Animals. I used this book to help teach descriptive writing. We first listened to the music for one of the animals and talked about what we thought it was describing. We then listened again after we knew what it was. This book and CD are great because the songs are all under 2 minutes and so are perfect for students to listen to.

[Seth Lebaron · Rating 5 out of 5]

THis would be a fun book to read and discuss before going on a field trip. Remind the class the always stay with the teacher and do not wonder off, because at first it may be fun but if we leave them behind they will not like it at all.

[Molly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Part of me wants to leave this as a sub plan, but then I wouldn’t have the joy of reading it to them. Plus, I’ve practiced saying “Oliver Pendleton Percy the third was a mischievous imp of a lad” in 12/8 time without stumbling. Love this man, love this book.

[Lori · Rating 5 out of 5]

Genre: Picture Book

Reading Level: K-4

Theme: Animals, Cultural elements (ballet, classical music, museums)

Curricula Use: Read Aloud

Literary elements: Poetry, cultural relevance

Text & Pictures: Interesting, and sometimes scary, illustrations accompanying interesting, rhyming text

Summary: "Carnival of the Animals" is a wonderful story of a boy named Oliver who is inadvertently left behind while on a school field trip and spends the night in the Museum of Natural History. Oliver's dreams takes us to a different world, where the people in his life and the animals in the museum become one.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very cute story of a little boy who wanders off from a school trip to the Natural History Museum and falls asleep. In his dreams people from all different areas of his life appear as different animals, and in the end he is happily reunited with his worried mother. The story is told in verse, which would make it a great deal of fun to read aloud, and the pictures are wonderful--very dense, great facial expressions and turning Lithgow's descriptions of the people/animals into whimsical creatures on the page.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a unique and beautifully written poem to go along with Camille Saint-Saens’s orchestral version of Carnival of the Animals. It was written by John Lithgow and performed by the New York City Ballet in 2003.
Lithgow has a way of making what could be simple, mundane sentences into masterful works of art. He uses alternative vocabulary to stretch the young mind and expose children to new and wonderful words. THis is a longer book that may require some dialogic reading to explain the more challenging vocabulary to children, but it is beautiful and lyrical and a pleasure to read.

[Shelli · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was based off a play and would be very exciting to watch performed. Didn't feel that it transitioned well into a book. The audio CD was to long as well. John Lithgow's spoken word was amazing of-course but between each track (and page) there was a minute or more of classical music to match the page. Even though I enjoy classical music, it slowed down the book, but would be beautiful for a stage performances.

[Miri Gifford · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've had "The Aquarium" in my head all day since reading this. It's my absolute favorite piece of classical music and I only wish that movement were longer. The narration (written for the New York City Ballet) is fun, the story of how it came about is fun, and the picture on the last page of John Lithgow performing the part of Mabel Buntz (with an absolutely enormous bust) is possibly the most fun of all.

[Theresa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Carnival of the Animals (Hardcover)
by John Lithgow
This book was created to supplement a ballet that John Lithgow narrated and participated in 2003. The story is loosely based on Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns piece Carnival of Animals, although marketed for kids the book has more connection to adults, and older students then elementary school. there are added animals, and featured ideas not in the original composition.

[Karin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love John Lithgow books. This one is no exception. The title is correct, this book comes with a CD of the music and Lithgow narrating a story that goes along with it. He was commissioned to write a story to the music by a ballet company. The pictures are great and the story made my kids laugh.

[Talea · Rating 5 out of 5]

The story is great, the illustrations are unforgettable, and any book that encourages my kids to learn is a win. We spent quite a bit of time looking at the pictures and after we were done we looked up Carnival of the Animals and listened to the suite by Camille Saint-Saens. Wonderful memories were made over this one.

[Tamra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Delightful!

Good with or without the CD.

My one sadness: On the page where it talks about dancing brontosauruses, it pictures a different dinosaur. What's with that? Think we wouldn't know the difference?

[Peacegal · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up this book imagining something light and silly, but the sophisticated poem and anthromorphized creatures really grew on me. I can’t imagine you could read this to a child without being interrupted every other word with, “What’s that mean?”

[Victoria Dimmitt · Rating 5 out of 5]

The pictures in this story were amazing! It's about a little boy who fell asleep and dreams about all these animals coming to life in the forms of real people he knows. This would be cute for a 2nd/3rd grade classroom.

[Kaethe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another "meh". I get it, and it might be wonderfully effective on stage, but as a picture book, I wasn't wowed. In fact, I'm kind of creeped out by the elephant on the cover. Lithgow appeals to me enormously as an actor, not so much as a writer.

Library copy

[The Brothers · Rating 4 out of 5]

A mischievous little boy sneaks away from his school field trips and ends up falling asleep in a natural history museum. There a carnival of animals traipses through his dream. Lovely, lyrical poem.

Great illustrations.

[Dolly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting narrative, somewhat creepy illustrations. My oldest really liked the CD that went with the book. I think this would be great to watch on stage.

[Cana · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mommy says: perhaps if u listen to the cd this would be fun but to just read it is pretty annoying.

[Jami · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked it a lot, the kids thought it a bit too weird.

[Bear · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very odd is this Lithgow critter. I like some of his stuff...

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clever!

[Kristen Mohr · Rating 3 out of 5]

Don't think I could read this for storytime, as I can't imagine saying "cock" and "jackass" in front of children, even if they mean the animals.

[Maxwell Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

John Lithgow wins an orchestral rap battle with the books verses. Excellent illustrations. Somewhat complex for younger kids.

[Gig Wailgum · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very fun with great artwork from Boris Kulikov!

[Annie · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you read this book, you have to listen to the CD with the music and narration. First graders are intrigued by the pictures, although a little bored by the music. The kids kept guessing that the next animal would be reindeer. Did we miss which animals the teachers turn into?

This is not a five star read for me because it uses the word "asses" when "donkeys" would have been adequate. I pointed them out to the kids as "donkeys" and they didn't notice Lithgow call them asses.

I also take issue with the description of the "manic depressive baboon" as inappropriate for children's books and offensive for any place used as some sort of synonym for "moody" rather than specifically and technically describing someone with bipolar.

[Kate Atherton · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a TRIP. Apparently John Lithgow wrote this as narration for a new 'Carnival of the Animals' ballet for New York city ballet AND performed the role of the elephant nurse in that production. Who knew! The illustrations are a little creepy-eyed and haunting but overall whimsical and depict the right amount of dream/nightmare like magic. I would love to hear these words (of which there are a lot of BIG ones like 'apparition' and 'fussbudget') together with the Carnival of the animals music by Saint-Saens. Really fun to read, look at and imagine with music or as a ballet production but this book is HARD-er to read aloud and definitely has a lot of bigger and less used words so, prepare reader both to say them and to get a dictionary ready for young readers/listeners.

[Lynn Davidson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Comes with a CD of the author dramatically performing the story, and every second track is beautiful orchestral music to add depth of illustration to the story. In the back of the book is an explanation of the origin of this story and the author's contribution in turning this orchestral suite into a ballet for children.
Oliver went to the animal museum with his classmates where he hid and fell asleep. They left without him. Oliver had a vivid dream about his classmates, teachers, and neighbours, all now animals, performing various things in a carnival. Very enjoyable. Fabulous illustrations.

[Sean Harding · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lithgow Flash #1
Actor John Lithgow lends his talents to writing this book for younger readers, which has some interest, it is quote wordy and I'm not sure if younger readers may drift away.
Anyway still a decent read.