ABC Book Reviews

Matthew A.B.C. by Peter Catalanotto
   32 pp. Atheneum/Jackson
   Review 7/02
After the principal wonders how Mrs. Tuttle tells the twenty-five Matthews in her class apart, we are treated to a cumulatively wacky alphabetical rundown of the traits distinguishing one boy from the next. "Nearly naked" Matthew N. wears briefs and a superhero cape, while "fiercely tense" Matthew T. inclines rigidly against his chair like a tin soldier. Sturdy watercolors illustrate this clever alphabet book.

Alpha Bravo Charlie: The Military Alphabet by Chris L. Demarest
   40 pp. McElderry
   Review 7/05
Demarest adds to his boy-friendly series of concept books with this alphabetic tribute to the armed forces. For each letter, the author-illustrator includes the International Communications Alphabet-designated word and the U.S. Navy's signal flag. The vigorous illustrations are action-filled; each is accompanied by a sentence that gives a context for the picture while using words beginning with the relevant letter.

Firefighters A to Z by Chris L. Demarest
   32 pp. McElderry
   Review 7/00
In a smoothly rhyming text, this exciting alphabet book details what happens from the time the alarm sounds at the fire station to the final "zip into bed for a rest" once the blaze has been extinguished. Permeated with intense primary colors, the images in the action-oriented artwork build on one another to convey the physical nature of this dramatic but serious job.

Eating the Alphabet by Lois Ehlert
   32 pp. Harcourt
   Review 5/89
Do children need another alphabet book? Absolutely, when it is as imaginatively designed and cunningly presented as this one. From the bright-colored flat representations of fruits and vegetables on the endpapers to the rollicking invitation, "Apple to Zucchini, come take a look. Start eating your way through this alphabet book," Ehlert has carefully considered ways to make her gastronomic tour unique and filling.

The Turn-Around, Upside-Down Alphabet Book by Lisa Campbell Ernst
   32 pp. Simon
   Review 7/04
In this bold, graphic alphabet, an exercise in visual imagination, each broad, sans-serif letter fills a square of a dissonant hue, which in turn is broadly bordered in black. One sentence, printed to be read from around the letter's four sides, invites readers to rotate the book and decode suggested interpretations: "S becomes / a snipped curl, / a circular slide, / a caterpillar." Handsome and intriguing.

Alphabet under Construction by Denise Fleming
   32 pp. Holt
   Review 9/02
Fleming's exuberant Mouse takes on the alphabet with all the industriousness of Martha Stewart and a lot more joyful abandon. Gluing G, measuring M, and welding W, Mouse builds letters on well-designed pages saturated with color. Each page is devoted to one letter and a different activity familiar to the alphabet-book crew. Fleming's paper-pulp illustrations are especially well suited to the topic.

The Racecar Alphabet by Brian Floca
   40 pp. Atheneum/Jackson
   Review 11/03
At letter A, the racecars have spoked wheels, and the drivers wear goggles. By J, the cars look much more like modern racecars, and by W, the illustration shows a NASCAR-style car. This book provides a nifty framework for showcasing racecars over the past one hundred years. The big pages are filled to the edges with color and movement, and Floca's alliterative text is action-packed.

The Accidental Zucchini: An Unexpected Alphabet by Max Grover
   34 pp. Harcourt
   Review 3/94
Bold, brash, and bouncy, this unexpected twist on the standard choices for alphabetic sequences links unlikely objects together. 'Apple autos' scoot along city streets; a 'Bathtub boat' bears its serene passenger through a tree-dotted landscape; and the 'Vegetable volcano' supplies a number of edible objects. Executed with panache, Grover's vision will undoubtedly stimulate young imaginations.

A Is for . . . ?: A Photographer's Alphabet of Animal by Henry Horenstein
   36 pp. Harcourt/Gulliver
   Review 1/00
A close-up black-and-white photo of part of an animal accompanies each letter; answers are provided at the back. The portraits reveal an often loving sense of each animal as an individual, and the two photos on each spread interact with each other, showing similar parts of the anatomy or similar patterns or compositions. Much more than a classy alphabet mystery book, this is also an example of fine book art.

Alphabet City by Stephen T. Johnson
   32 pp. Viking
   Review 11/95
This compilation of handsome, realistic paintings is a tantalizing exercise in visual perception. By examining objects from varied perspectives, Johnson creates an unusual alphabetic sequence drawn from observations of a city landscape. The twenty-six studies command attention and encourage readers to conduct similar explorations of their own. While some are easy to decipher and others are more challenging, all are imaginative, stimulating, and striking.

Aardvarks, Disembark! by Ann Jonas
   32pp. Greenwillow
   Review 11/90
Noah discovers many animals he does not recognize waiting to leave the ark. The book concludes with a list of the 132 species pictured and one line of information about each. Those now extinct or endangered are indicated. Realistic, accurate watercolors; an impressive, special book.

From Acorn to Zoo: And Everything in between in Alphabetical Order by Satoshi Kitamura
   32 pp. Farrar
   Review 5/92
Kitamura has created an alphabet book that is ingenious, fun, and accessible. The artist juxtaposes an incongruous assortment of objects beginning with the same letter, all of the items being neatly and clearly labeled. Beneath the scene appears a question, accompanied by a pictorial clue, that can be answered only by careful scrutiny of the illustration above. Marked by highly charged, deep-toned colors and sharp, unexpected diagonals, each page is an exciting visual experience.

A Is for Salad by Mike Lester
   32 pp. Putnam
   Review 3/00
The format appears similar to other alphabet books, with each page featuring a capital letter and a comic illustration of an animal, but this one's got a tricky premise: A isn't for salad, but for the alligator eating the salad; B isn't for Viking, but for the beaver depicted in Viking garb. Vibrant color caricatures, rendered in a style resembling woodcuts, highlight this atypical alphabet book.

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin, Jr., John Archambault, and Lois Ehlert
   36 pp. Simon
   Review 1/90
One of the liveliest, jazziest alphabet books on record. Tongue-tingling, visually stimulating, the book demands to be read again and again.

SuperHero ABC by Bob McLeod
   40 pp. HarperCollins
   Review 3/06
P might as well stand for the page-popping, large-scale Pictures that distinguish this ABC. These more than twenty-six superheroes include both genders and a host of species, alike only in their desire to do good in alphabetical order. The drawing is expert, the page design is dynamic, the colors are attractively lurid, and the humor is deliberately, delightfully dumb.

The City ABC Book by Zoran Milich
   32 pp. Kids Can
   Review 7/01
This photographic find-the-letter alphabet book is ideal for three- to four-year-olds. The hidden letters — all in an urban location — are tinted a satisfying fire-engine red, and the letter (in both capital and lowercase) is printed below the picture or on the facing page. Beautifully composed and reproduced in high contrast, the subjects range from gritty to gently humorous. A brilliantly simple idea executed in a classic manner.

V for Vanishing: An Alphabet of Endangered Animals by Patricia Mullins
   32 pp. HarperCollins
   Review 9/94
From armadillo to zebra, each letter of the alphabet, printed in large upper and lower case, begins the name of an endangered species. Mullins includes the name of the specific species and the scientific name, as well as the country or region of the world that is home to the animal. Careful scholarship, intelligent presentation, and gorgeous torn-paper collage illustrations combine to make this a fascinating book for a wide audience.

The Graphic Alphabet by David Pelletier
   32 pp. Orchard
   Review 11/96
An aptly titled alphabet book places the emphasis on letterforms, color, and design, presenting each letter in a way that reflects the meaning of the word beneath it. The book is clearly not for young readers — the letters are often shown tipped, tilted, or skewed, in capitals or lowercase. Pelletier even manages a few touches of humor, mainly due to some surprising word choices and his whimsically clever methods of illustrating them.

The Handmade Alphabet by Laura Rankin
   32 pp. Dial
   Review 11/91
Luminous, realistically rendered colored-pencil drawings illustrate the hand shapes for the letters of the manual alphabet, used by the hearing impaired as a part of American Sign Language. Each drawing incorporates objects or actions while clearly picturing the correct position of the fingers and hands to make each sign. An elegant, imaginative alphabet book.

The Hidden Alphabet by Laura Vaccaro Seeger
   32 pp. Roaring Brook/Porter
   Review 1/04
Sturdy pages made of card stock feature black die-cut flaps folding down from the top. Lift the flaps and foreground turns background as pictured images become the negative space defining the letter form. Within each image, delicately subtle shadows transform shapes from convex to concave (or vice versa) once the flap is lifted. This is great bookmaking, and a snazzy — though sophisticated — addition to the alphabet bookshelf.

Z Was Zapped by Chris Van Allsburg
   32 pp. Lorraine/Houghton
   Review 1/88
In an unusual new black-and-white alphabet book Van Allsburg has chosen to show all the letters as if he is setting them forth one by one upon a stage, a proscenium with dark curtains. Each letter is a three-dimensional example of Caslon type in white. The text is placed on the following page, making the book suitable as a guessing game. As a graphic experience the book is a great success, the darkness of the setting giving the reader a feeling of impending doom and strange goings-on backstage.

Max's ABC by Rosemary Wells
   32 pp. Viking 2006.
An alphabet-driven sequence involving ants is fashioned into a satisfying Max-and-Ruby story. Plump, determined, and as beguilingly expressive as ever, the bunny siblings are set on large, square blocks of vibrant Easter egg colors, the bolded capital letters nicely incorporated into the design and sometimes even the action; the almost-life-size ants are realistically (and amusingly) ubiquitous.

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