An Annoying ABC - Hardcover

Bottner, Barbara

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0375867082 ISBN 13: 9780375867088

Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2011

Synopsis

Imagine a preschool classroom with 25 cranky kids and one beleaguered teacher.

It only takes one small annoying act from Adelaide to set off a chain reaction of bad behavior. Dexter is drooling, Flora is fuming, Jasper is jeering, Kirby is kicking . . . and before you know it, Stella is stumbling, Todd is tumbling, and Winthrop is weeping. Oh, oh, oh!

What will it take to turn this annoying day around? Readers will be amazed and amused to see what happens when Adelaide . . . apologizes.

Barbara Bottner and Michael Emberley follow up their bestselling Miss Brooks Loves Books! (and I Don't) with this outrageously funny alphabet book that shows that kindness can be contagious, too.

About this title

About the Author

BARBARA BOTTNER studied painting in Paris, worked as a set desinger, toured as part of an acting ensemble, and made animated shorts for Sesame Street before turning to writing and illustrating children's books. She is the author of more than 36 books, including Miss Brooks Loves Books! (and I Don't) and Bootsie Barker Bites, illustrated by Peggy Rathmann.

MICHAEL EMBERLEY has been writing and illustrating children's books since 1979. He has more than 20 books to his credit, and he has a sister and father (Rebecca and Ed) who also make children's books. His hobbies include bicycle racing, bike riding, cycling, mountain biking, and avoiding driving.

Review

Starred Review, Publishers Weekly, July 25, 2011:
"Bottner's deadpan, minimalist text inspires Emberley to some terrific portraits in extremis--this isn't just an alphabet book, it's an encyclopedia of kindergarten deportment, from aggression to zealotry."

Starred Review, School Library Journal, October 2011:
Miss Mabel’s class roll includes an alphabetical assortment of children’s names. Readers meet each child in consecutive order, unfortunately engaged in a domino effect of unneighborly behavior. “It was a quiet morning until... Adelaide annoyed Bailey. Bailey blamed Clyde. Clyde cried. Dexter drooled on Eloise. Eloise elbowed Flora. Flora fumed,” etc. The great chain of misbehavior culminates in Adelaide’s head-to-toe soaking, having been “zapped” by Zelda with a hose. Everyone is astonished, and, finally, everyone apologizes. Emberley keeps the action rolling along with his horizontal chain of charismatic youngsters, set against long white pages and illustrated in his sketchlike pencil-and-watercolor style. He has a knack for portraying each child’s emotion in all its precocious intensity. Touches of whimsy, such as Adelaide’s tiger costume and Miss Mabel’s floral tank top over cargo shorts over polka-dot leggings ensemble, keep the whole crew endearing despite the chaos. Each letter is highlighted by a colored box, but a swiftly moving narrative that practically demands the insertion of a few sound effects during read-aloud broadens the appeal of this ABC beyond mere concept book. While storytime audiences will appreciate this well-paced tale, individual children may wish to slow down and take a closer look at Emberley’s spunky classmates than a large group reading would allow. Fortunately, the whole effect is much more pleasing than annoying.–Jayne Damron, Farmington Community Library, MI

Starred Review, Kirkus Reviews, August 15, 2011
What’s annoying? Adelaide annoys Bailey when she runs at him wearing her tiger costume, scaring him and causing him to let the gerbil out of its cage.
So begins a rollicking preschool/early-elementary romp featuring kids who appear in alphabetical order with a corresponding action as Adelaide sets off a domino effect. “Bailey blamed Clyde. / Clyde cried. / Dexter drooled on Eloise. / Eloise elbowed Flora. / Flora fumed.” The pandemonium that ensues is a clever visual narrative loaded with details, such as the gerbil-escape subplot. The hilarity lies in the illustrations, typical Emberley style, done in mechanical pencil and watercolors. Children (and Miss Mabel, the teacher) in the alphabetical spotlight are rendered in full color, while the other characters are in black and white against colored backgrounds. The kids sport a variety of skin colors, hairdos and clothing, with one girl (Ida) in a wheelchair. How does the mayhem resolve? When Zelda zaps Adelaide with the water hose, Adelaide, as instigator, apologizes, and so does everyone else. For the trickier letters, Q is Quentin; X is Xavier; Y is Yves. One read-through will simply not be enough to enjoy all the fun. This would make a splendid project for a classroom to make up their own alphabetical list of names.
A is for one awesome, amusing, antic alphabet book. (Alphabet picture book. 4-8)

About this edition

• Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0375867082
• ISBN 13: 9780375867088
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Emberley Michael