The A to Z Beastly Jamboree - Hardcover

Bender, Robert

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0525675205 ISBN 13: 9780525675204

Publisher: Dutton Juvenile, 1996

Synopsis

Presents an alphabet book with a twist as a wild cast of characters does the oddest things, such as zebras zipper a Z and lions launch an L, with fun-filled illustrations to enhance the children's journey through the alphabet.

About this title

From School Library Journal

PreSchool-Grade 2?Vivid paintings, well-chosen words, and a clever concept distinguish this alphabet book. Each full-page illustration is captioned with a three-word sentence that describes what an animal is doing to the featured letter. Many are humorously destructive: "Rhinoceroses ruin R" and "Bats boil B," recalling Chris Van Allsburg's The Z Was Zapped (Houghton, 1987). Others are more benign, as in "Elephants embrace E." Each painting is neatly bordered by 26 animals. All ants are shown for A; 1 ant and 25 bats for B; an ant, a bat, and 24 cows for C; etc.; until the border is completed at Z with 26 different animals. Kids will recognize almost all of the creatures (maybe not the dodo, and probably not the xanthid crab). Older readers might enjoy trying to guess the caption from the picture. Bender's usual paint-on-acetate technique works well in this format. The luminous colors, particularly yellows, greens, and oranges, create an individual tone for each page without sacrificing unity. The humor is nicely restrained: a pig purchasing P casually carries his change in his mouth, while two octopuses use nearly every arm to "overfeed O." Uppercase letters are used in the pictures, but the captions offer both upper- and lowercase examples. A refreshing addition.?Steven Engelfried, West Linn Public Library, OR
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Publishers Weekly

The letters of the alphabet find themselves at the mercy of an assortment of animals as Bender (A Little Witch Magic) applies his signature paint-on-acetate techniques to the ABCs. H is "haunted" by two bellowing hippopotamuses, a couple of mice "mail" the letter M, and W is "wrestled" by walruses. The formula doesn't vary: each letter is teamed up with a corresponding animal and an action verb, thus "Unicorns undress Uu." A buoyant picture illustrates each phrase, the letter in question painted brightly at the center of the action. A border of alphabet animals snakes around each piece of artwork. The chain runs in alphabetical order, too; for example, the border around "Dodos decorate Dd" runs ant, bat, cow, dodo; the remainder of the chain is composed of nose-to-tail dodos. This format repeats on each page until all 26 animals complete the chain. As usual, Bender's art combines a gentle fuzziness with luminosity. His colors glow, the muted grays and browns almost as much as the electric greens and violets. It's a suitably unearthly setting for these offbeat beasties. Ages 2-6.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Dutton Juvenile
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0525675205
• ISBN 13: 9780525675204
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Bender Robert