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List Price: $17.95 | | Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
Salesrank: 535797
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| Our Price: $1.99 |
| Used Price: $0.48 |
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| Media: Hardcover |
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Editorial Review:
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.
Carnival of the Animals Reviews:
another cherished book by John Lithgow 
2008-08-01 - Another book in the collection of John Lithgow's childrens' books.
Lovely and witty prose.
Wonderful narration and eye popping illustrations
2007-06-28 - I used this with my kindergarten music class, and they were absolutely enthralled. Even kids who normally weren't on their best behavior were attentive and involved. We laughed hysterically together at the pictures, they were always finding something on the page to talk about. In addition, John Lithgow is a terrific storyteller who really makes the story come alive. During the musical passages woven through the story, I would stop and prompt the children to identify the instruments in the background and have them discuss ways each shows the character - eg. the how the elephant is shown with a slow, heavy tempo with low pitch; or how the wooden bars of the xylophone resonate to sound like the bones of the fossils. I highly recommend this book and cd.
So sad john.... 
2007-06-11 - I have to say, I own ALL of john's books and I love them all, except this one. I teach 3-4 year olds and the tune of this book is very dry. kind of boring. I let my friend borrow it to present to her 5 year old children and still no interest from them. The pictures are wonderful, and the cd is ok to listen to while the children play, but they are not interested inrerading the book.
Great except for one word 
2007-04-07 - I am an elementary music teacher and this book is excellent for a number of reasons. However my only problem, and it is a problem in elementary school when children in grade 1 or 2 want to read the book, is one word. It is another name for donkey and starts with jack. It appears three times and I have taped over the word and put the word donkey, which works well except for one sentence that is suppose to rhyme. The pictures, prose, and included CD are all great and work well in the classroom as well as the home.
Carnival of the Animals
2005-01-18 - I was a bit skeptical of this book when it was given to my 5-year old at Christmas, but I have to say it won me over. My son really loves it too, and we don't always have the same taste for books, so it's nice that we both enjoy this together. The rhymes are ingenious and the music is lovely. The vocabulary is advanced, but that's part of what makes this book so charming.
