An Alphabet of Stories - Softcover

Jeffers Oliver

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0007514298 ISBN 13: 9780007514298

Publisher: HARPER COLLINS, 2018

Synopsis

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About this title

About the Author:

Oliver Jeffers graduated from The University of Ulster in 2001 with First Class honours. His outstanding talent has been recognised by several high-profile awards, including the Nestle Children's Book Prize Gold Award. `Lost and Found' animation was broadcast on Channel 4. Oliver lives and works in Brookyln, New York.

From School Library Journal:

Gr 1–4—Jeffers's empathic nature, evident from his sympathetic renderings of Drew Daywalt's beleaguered crayons in The Day the Crayons Quit (Philomel, 2013), here extends to the hardworking letters. This eccentric and entertaining anthology is introduced by an eloquent syllogism about the relationship of letters, words, and stories. While each four-page tale showcases a (seemingly) hand-drawn capital and lowercase letter, and many of the words—and unnamed objects—begin with the corresponding letter, this is not your mother's abecedarium. It is a framework for Jeffers's intriguing worldview, combining ludicrous juxtapositions and situations and a great capacity for gentleness. Some passages are scientific: "Mary is made of matter....she got sucked through a microscope and became the size of a molecule." The facing page shows Mary floating under the lens. The blackboard-style background is filled with "molecular" diagrams (mattresses, a moose, mums). Other sections are a mite macabre: "Jack Stack the Lumberjack has been struck by lightning one hundred and eleven times...." The lightning illuminates a skeleton, but after the page turn, the man appears in his jammies, normal, except that he can provide his own electricity. There is humor in the alliteration and mixed-media scenes: a puzzled parsnip, Victor the vanquished "plotting his vengeance," and an enigma featuring elephants and envelopes. The author respects his readers' intelligence, inserting expansive vocabulary, cameos from characters in previous books, people and plot threads that cross stories, and quiet details to discover in subsequent readings. An altogether stimulating, surprising, and satisfying reading experience.—Wendy Lukehart, District of Columbia Public Library

About this edition

• Publisher: HARPER COLLINS
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 0007514298
• ISBN 13: 9780007514298
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 56