Tag alphabet book

When the Moon Smiled / Vehicles ABC

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When the Moon Smiled
Petr Horáček
Walker Books
Full of twinkling charm is this board book version of a favourite Petr Horáček counting story.

One evening the moon rises to discover that everything down below has gone topsy-turvy. The animals that should have been awake are nowhere in sight while those that ought to have been asleep are still awake.

Time to light the stars and set things right, thinks the moon. And so he does, one by one.

The first star lit sends the dog into the land of nod; the second is for the two cats; they stretch and go out on the prowl.

Then in turn he goes on to light a star, for, the three cows, four bats,

five pigs, six foxes, seven geese, eight mice, nine sheep and finally, the tenth star is for the moths.

Now the entire sky is full of stars shining down over the farm and all’s right with the world.

It’s a perfect bedtime story for little ones, so written in a lyrical manner and illustrated in mixed media by Horáček, as to induce a feeling of somnolence.

Children will love to join in counting the stars and animals along with the moon as he alternates between setting to rights the diurnal and nocturnal creatures, before falling fast asleep themselves.

Vehicles ABC
Jannie Ho
Nosy Crow

Just right for introducing an assortment of 26 means of transport, from ambulance to zeppelin, is this alphabetic array of vehicles that run on land, move across water or fly through the air.

If your child’s at that stage, it’s great for learning letters of the alphabet by name and also the initial sounds; although electric car and ice-cream van, unicycle, Queen Mary and express train will need a bit of extra talking about (one of the snags of phonics).

With bold bright images against equally bright backgrounds to enjoy, the sounds of the various vehicles to make – both you and your toddler can have fun being inventive over this – plus possibilities such as wheels, lack of, who might drive and countless other possible things to talk about, this little board book is simply bursting with a wealth of language learning potential.

An Animal ABC

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An Animal ABC
Alice Pattullo
Pavilion Books
Print-maker and illustrator Alice Pattullo’s animal screen prints are used as the basis of an awesome ABC book. This is so much more than a mere alphabet book though. We’re introduced to a veritable treasure trove of creatures large and small but these are not for the most part the normal go-to animals one finds in a child’s alphabet.

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Each creature is given a double spread with a multi-layered screen print picture of the animal on the right hand side named above in capitals, with (as a rule) a lower case Latin name beneath the illustration.
For her menagerie, rather than the strictly naturalistic colours one would expect for each animal, Pattullo has used hues of the earth, sea and sky to build up her images.
The left hand page has the initial letter as a capital with two lines below which form part of a rhyming couplet: ‘S/ is for sloth/ who smiles while asleep 

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followed by: T/ is for turtle/ who swims waters deep.’ …

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Below the rhyme in smaller print are two or three lines of information about the featured animal. Clearly this will be more of interest to adults or older siblings sharing the book with a young child.
There’s a final treat at the end in the form of twenty six vignettes – one per animal – and each is a small detail taken from the whole image, to be matched with the full sized picture earlier in the book: excellent for developing visual literacy.
Altogether a classy book to look at, discuss and linger over.

Alphabet Mayhem – Z is for Moose

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Z is for Moose
Kelly Bingham and Paul O. Zelinsky
Andersen Press pbk
From cover to cover, this alphabet book is an absolute hoot.
Zebra is trying to stage manage an alphabetical show and is attempting to ensure that each object appears in proper order of its initial letter/sound. But there is an exuberant Moose who is so eager to get himself on stage and in the spotlight that he keeps appearing at inappropriate times. When it does get to his letter, poor Moose discovers that in fact, it is Mouse that is be featured. Oh woe!

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He then determines to sabotage the whole production.

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Zebra remains equally determined and keeps the show rolling– well almost – and then right at the end, comes up with a wonderful conflict resolution as the grand finale. Have you guessed it?
Everything about this romp through the alphabet is a joy. Start from Zelinsky’s cast of characters just visible under the curtain in front of the stairs on the first opening and then go to the dedication page and watch the alphabetical cast emerging through the stage door. From there on in, you can see each of Kelly Bingham’s alphabetic characters, some entirely, some just sufficiently (despite Moose) to be able to determine what should be centre stage.

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The whole book is brilliantly done through a wonderful partnership between author and artist.
Also brilliant are the contrasting characters: Zebra –graceful and calm, most of the time, Moose – gawky and in your face, but with oh so winning a smile.
Children will adore everything about this book and like me, be in fits of laughter at the antics of Moose especially the spread whereon the Queen is dethroned.
Truly an alphabet book like no other. But DO NOT think of this as just an ABC book; it’s a marvellous story in its own right. Simply wonderful stuff.
I urge you, wherever and whatever your connection with young children, get hold of this book and share it over and over. No connection? – then get yourself a copy and just ENJOY!
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It is possible to create an alternative alphabet book from this one using feelings and moods that emerge throughout this romp of a story: A- Anger, B – Bravado, C – Cool, D Disappointment, E – Exuberance and so on. For X of you’d need to use the second letter of the word eg eXcited.
Why not take on the challenge with your children?