A Bale of Turtles

by Lee Clancey, Mary Rothermel (Illustrator)

Overview

In the animal world, each animal has its own name, but there are also names for groups of the same kind of animallike a flock of sheep or a bale or turtles! There are special words for all kinds of animals; how many can you learn?

Whale families are called pods, but a group of whale friends is a gam. There are schools of dolphins and litters of puppies. On the farm, you might find a gaggle of geese, a trip of goats, or a drift of hogs. If you go to the woods, you could meet a sloth of bears or a skulk of foxes! And up in the air you could see a richness of ravens or a parliament of owls.

Entertaining and informative, this illustrated childrens book introduces nouns of assembly for animals in fun and colorful verse.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781480820456
Publisher:	Archway Publishing
Publication date:	08/18/2015
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	38
File size:	13 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Lee Clancey is a former teacher, business owner, and politician who is now retired. She and her husband, Jay, have three grown sons, and she wrote this book for her grandchildren.

Mary Rothermel is a working artist living in Seattle and specializing in oil paintings and landscapes. She holds a BFA from the University of Washington, has exhibited her work nationally, and has completed numerous commissions. Mary often collaborates with her husband and fellow artist, Tom Northington.

Editorial Reviews

11/23/2015
In an amusing introduction to collective nouns, Clancey uses concise rhymes of describe animal groups on land, in water, and in the air. Rothermel’s skills at rendering naturalistic scenes are apparent, yet her paintings also offer hints of visual playfulness: in one scene, dolphins and jellyfish swim within view of an underwater one-room schoolhouse (“A lone jellyfish floats in the sea/ And she is soon joined by a smack./ A school of dolphins swims nearby,/ They already have their pack”). Elsewhere, strings of ponies play hopscotch in a field, a “serious business of ferrets” wears tycoon-worthy top hats, and moles and rabbits rest in underground burrows, tucked cozily in the layered contours of the ground. The tall trim size is at odds with the horizontal orientation of the images, the artwork squeezed into single pages with large margins above and below, but the notes of whimsy and majesty Rothermel includes (a gaggle of geese, a rafter of turkeys, and a paddling of ducks reside in a pond ablaze with reflected autumn foliage) should hold readers’ attention. Ages 4–8. (BookLife)

Publishers Weekly