Animal Orchestra

by Ilo Orleans, Tibor Gergely (Illustrator)

A classic and beloved Little Golden Book, from the illustrator of  Tootle , The Little Red Caboose , and Scuffy the Tugboat .

This rhyming story about an animal orchestra and its hippo conductor is perfect for reading aloud. Children will have front-row seats as they imagine the rousing experience of a night at the orchestra!

Genres: Picture Books, Music, Animals, Childrens, Classics, Fiction

24 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1958

Reviews

[Calista]

Being someone who spent many years watching and then playing in Orchestras, I adore this silly little story. All the characters are animals and there is much silliness to be had. The author does use weird words. He calls the Orchestra a band, which it isn’t - a band does not have strings, he has a saxophone in the orchestra, a bagpipe and he calls the violin a fiddle, for rhyming effect, but I’m being picky as I have such a love for it.

The flute player, which would be me, is a rhino, which is funny in the difference of sizes. Giraffes play the cello and a Hippo is the conductor. They make a Hip-hippo-ray pun at the end that tickled me.

It’s simply a story about a concert taking place. I would recommend this to anyone interested in music or loves animals doing silly things.

[Dianna]

2010: The verse is slightly awkward and at one point a fife is confused with a bagpipe . . . but we still love this book. It's a must-read for musicians and kids who love animals. And it has taught my two-year-old to recognize a yak!

2016: Loving the pictures. My not-quite-two-year-old is captivated.

[Jessie]

This is pretty cute. Rhyming text tells the tale of an all-animal orchestra. I can tell it was written in the 40s because all the musicians are male. There's a very cheesy joke at the end, which we all laughed at a lot.

[Clare Bear]

I bought this for my nephew a couple of years back but I pull it out more often than he. I enjoy the illustrations.

[Audrey]

Cute rhyme. The exotic animals are not recognized by my 2-year old, but he seems to enjoy the book otherwise.

[Serge Smagarinsky]

A fun, rhyming read-aloud book. Not much of a story but good coverage of animals and orchestral instruments. Ends with a nice bit of word play. Did I mention it's a fun, rhyming read-aloud book?

[Heather Jo]

megan winter reading 2016, children's book, picture book, little golden book, classic, orchestra, musical instruments, music, animals, prek, kindergarten, first grade

[Aaron Wong]

Orleans, I. (2004). Animal orchestra. New York: Golden Books.

[Tapani Aulu]

Katsokaapas apinaa:
yrittelee kapinaa,
tahdissa ei pysy laama
- huolen kurttuun venyy naama.

Taisi olla 30 vuotta edellisestä kerrasta, mutta hyvin muistui mieleen.

[Kylie Abecca]

Very catchy, fun to read and a vast collection of musical instruments included.

[Katt Hansen]

There isn't much to this book - no real plot. Just a lot of animals playing instruments. I wasn't overly impressed. Some of the pictures just seemed too cluttered and busy. There's no storyline. And not all instruments are properly named.

I suppose I get a little bit too picky with my picture books, but I do like at least a sense of substance when reading for a child. This kind of story never held much appeal, and never seemed to catch the imagination of the child much without having to do a lot of extra work (things like pointing out details in the pictures, asking a whole lot of questions, and trying to keep engaged throughout. While I'm not opposed to 'working' a book with a child, some books do make it easier than others to keep a child engaged, and lead to better conversations than "Do you see the elephant? What's he doing?")

If this wasn't in a volume with a couple other books I'd get rid of it. This is sad because usually I love the Little Golden Books dearly, but this one just kind of missed the mark.

[Helen]

This is a wonderful book, with poetry and detailed pictures! It is great at introducing concepts about the orchestral instruments. One star reduced because the capitalization is incorrect (bad modeling for kids who read.)

[Jamie]

One of our son's bedtime favorite. Read almost nightly multiple times, he asks for it by name and quotes his favorite parts. Good for recognizing animals and instruments.

[Meredith]

An animal orchestra performs for animal audience.

This picture book introduces young readers to different musical instruments as well as to different domestic and wild animals.

Although this book is about an orchestra, many of the instruments featured are not standard orchestra instruments. These are saxophones, mandolins, guitars, and bagpipes.

[Sarah]

Get ready for the animal orchestra...a rocking good time!

[Roger]

Beautiful artwork and a funny ending

[Lisa]

Just a fun kids book with lovely 1950s illustrations.

[Teresa]

My daughter loved this book when she was 2-3 years old. She even started learning to read words out of it because she loved it so much.

[Olivia Gill]

awesome

[KT]

the tiger tooted

[Eric Burroughs]

Hurrah for the Hippo conductor

[Little Champs]

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