I'm a little bit confused as to who the audience for this book is supposed to be. A is for Apricat is a clever alphabet book that combines animals with foods. Are toddlers learning their ABCs really going to "get" the Kangaroot (kangaroo/turmeric root hybrid) or the Narwhanilla (narwhal/vanilla bean hybrid)? Some mashups, like the Apricat and Flamango, have the potential to reinforce the wrong spelling in kids who are just learning.

I like the inclusion at the back of the list of all the foods that are pictured. Still, I don't know if toddlers are going to care about antioxidants and the digestive health properties of various fruits and vegetables. Adults will likely find this book more entertaining than kids because of its pun-like nature. The problem is, to understand jokes like this, you need to understand the concepts they're derived from... and I'm not sure if the audience for an alphabet book has that understanding yet.

Everyone, please gather around and allow me to introduce you to my new obsession. It’s fruit, vegetables and other healthy yummies! It’s animals! It’s an entire alphabet of whimsical food/animal combinations and this kid in the adult suit is absolutely delighted by it. I can’t choose a favourite because they’re all so imaginative and fun. That’s fun spelled:

* F for Flamango
* U for Unicorn
* N for Narwhanilla

I wish I could spell the entire alphabet to you because this book is just so smile-inducing! It’s times like this when I need to borrow someone’s child so I can see the look on their face as they figure out what’s made me so happy. Naturally they would then fall in love with the book too. Never fear, though; in the absence of a child I read this book to my mother instead. Because … that’s how I roll apparently? Needless to say, Mum loved it too and we’re both planning to reread it tomorrow.

Oh, and if you like your educational mixed in with your cute factor, you’ll get a little fix of that too with ‘Food Facts’, bite sized (sorry, I had to get cheesy) pieces of information about every morsel you encountered as you made your way through the alphabet.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group - Walter Foster, Jr. for granting my wish to read this book. I think I’m in need of a sequel that teaches me how to count.

This book is way too cute. Every page made me giggle and the extra food tidbits in the back were really great.

The animal/food mashups were really creative and I kept telling myself which one was my favorite and the second I got to a new page I had a new favorite.

I would love to read this to my little guy. He’d love it as much as me.

Really cute alphabet book that combines animals and fruits. It will introduce kids to a lot of different fruits and vegetables that they might not know.