Animals Speak

What does a sheep say in Germany, a bee in Sweden, or a donkey in Slovenia? In Lila Prap’s wonderfully playful Animals Speak, the familiar sounds of the animal kingdom become a charming introduction to the astonishing variety of human languages.

Each brightly illustrated page presents an animal and the different ways its call is represented around the world, revealing how something as universal as a bark, moo, bray or buzz can sound remarkably different from one language to another. The book includes animal “languages” from more than forty languages, with pronunciation guides and examples drawn from Europe, Asia, Africa and beyond.

Funny, colourful and genuinely educational, Animals Speak encourages young readers to explore language, culture, geography and onomatopoeia while discovering that animals may not speak human languages—but humans certainly don’t all hear them the same way.

This 2006 North-South Books edition, published in New York, is a 40-page hardcover illustrated by Prap herself.