A Child's First ABC Alphabet

B is for boy…but in Alison Jay's ABC, B also stands for basket, beehive, and butterfly! Simple in format, with a letter and word on every page and bright paintings of everyday items, ABC is perfect for toddlers. As with the acclaimed Picture This…, each turn of the page reveals numerous visual surprises.

Review

"PreS-Gr. 2. Similar in look and concept to Jay's Picture This (2000), this imaginative alphabet book offers visual clues to track and a story to tease out in its beautiful paintings. Each picture focuses on one large item that corresponds to a letter in the alphabet, named below the picture. For "C is for cow," a cow with an elongated body arches across a sky spreading over a landscape dotted with other items having names beginning with the letter C (a car and a cat, for example), which show up again in later pictures. The woman driving the car appears in many pictures, as does a man, first seen in a hot-air balloon, who goes on a trip and corresponds with the woman. Older children will flip from page to page, finding the simple story, drawing connections, and naming the letter-related objects. Younger ones can simply enjoy the delightful paintings with their crackle-glazed folk art look and touches of humor, including a bespectacled giraffe trimming topiary, an owl wearing a pence nez, and other animals who appear together for the last letter and word, the inevitable "z is for zoo." Kathleen Odean, Booklist