Good Illustrations Make the Book
355065
"The Roman Legionary" is a picture book geared at children 8-11 years of age.  The illustrations are by Gerry Embleton.  He is an illustrator and reenactor who has made a career ilustrating Osprey military history guide books.  He is one of the finest illustrators working in historical non-fiction.  Martin Windrow is an author who has also made his career by writing Osprey guidebooks.  The text is well written but ultimatley limited because this is a picture book geared towards young children.  If you are looking for something more substantive, check out "The Legionary" by Peter Connolly.
477961
I thought the illustrations were creative and enhanced the storyline.  I can see the children enjoying the book.  I can also see teachers, librarians and parents using this book to foster sequencing skills and imagination.  The book can be interactive, by having the children "read along" when the phrase "Oh, No!" comes along.  I see many a flannel boards created to go along with the book.  Be sure to look at the end cover page.  Enjoy.
1539854
This is a nice little book, with all of Aesop's fables laid out in clear language. Most of the stories have an accompanying picture, but I can't say that the illustrations impressed me much. Some are very good, and others are not so good; while the artist is the same, there is no central unifying theme that ties the artwork together; in some of them, animals are anthropomorphized, while in others they are not. Each fable ends with the moral in italics, encouraging the reader to pause and give a moment's thought to the story that has just been read. The slimness of the volume might be appealing to young readers who would be intimidated by something more weighty.
2076848
Illustration design excites a child to want to read also repetition helps the early reader want to read more difficult text
866414
The illustrations in this book (and Journey) are beautiful.  The pictures tell a great story, and my kids enjoy it because they get to "read" the book.  The each present a slightly different story, and they change the names, but it is a great way to let them do the reading.
3197047
The illustrations are lovely and clear, I'm sure this book will be most enjoyable to use and I'll reorder more.
1661835
The cover of this book somehow looked "dated", but I took a chance my 4 year old nature fan would like it anyway.  And does he!  The illustrations in this book are bright and detailed, there are a bunch of pop-ups and pull-tabs, some that make animals move in great ways!  (The frog hops, the cricket actually chirps, etc.) The variety of animals in such a small book is terrific.  This is a good book for your child's library.
3699038
We bought this as a Christmas present for my two and a half year old daughter who is an avid reader. It's got humor, good illustrations and a good message. Each crayon has an issue, whether it be exhaustion from being overused, being used only to color stereotypical items, or having its wrapper peeled off and feeling naked. My daughter likes the different personalities of each crayon, and pointing out the colors in the final picture. A very cute book.
1990706
The author goes into great details and illustrations.  Will recommend this book.
3479028
The kids look forward to reading this book and enjoy the illustrations.  We took it a couple pages a night to explore further.
1549556
The illustrations alone sold me on this book.  I got it for my 2Yo daughter who loves it. So do I.
1722519
The illustrations are the main attraction of this book. I can almost hear the Andean music as I read it. The story is "cute". I read it to third grade students for many years in a row.
1669759
The colored pencil drawings are well done. Each uppercase letter was prominent on the page and one or two illustrations for items beginning with the letter are included.

As another reviewer notes, at least with my copy of the book, the sentence with each letter may be a confusing for a little one who is learning their alphabet. On my copy, for instance with the letter E, the sentence is "Elijah the elephant energetically elbowed Ernie the Eagle." The picture shows an eye and two sunny-side-up eggs and no Ernie the Eagle. Very few of the photos contain the items from the sentences with each letter. In addition, some sentences identify an animal, like "Ernie the Eagle," "George the giraffe," "Keegan the Kitten," and were not consistent in the upper or lowercase letters in the animal's name.  In this example, Eagle is uppercase, giraffe is lowercase, and Kitten is uppercase. There were other punctuation/formatting issues. A pet peeve of mine is the misuse of the apostrophe and the letter s, and there were several instances of this error.

As there are so few words associated with illustrations in ABC or number books for little ones, there are ought to be perfection in all sentences or words in my opinion. If an author does not know for sure correct punctuation or sentence structure, find someone knowledgeable to review/edit it.
1173193
Very cute , good illustrations,  simple reading for little ones.
1399087
I like the illustrations, but I wish the covers of the book were more sturdy and the pages were a little thicker. It came bent, so all of the pages are warped.
3053069
The story itself is short and sweet but it's the illustrations that make this so fun to read. Nice picture book for young kids and readers.
1386614
This picture book has an older reading level -- middle graders will learn quite a lot from this book, even if they are "too big" for picture books.  The text does not correlate perfectly with the illustrations (many of the illustrated automobiles are never mentioned in the text, and there are few captions).  Still, the technical illustrations clearly convey the information about engines and drive shafts and power.  My fourth grader (WAY "too big" for picture books) enjoys this very much.