Quilt Alphabet - Hardcover

Cline-Ransome, Lesa

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0823414531 ISBN 13: 9780823414536

Publisher: Holiday House, 2001

Synopsis

From apples to cows, kettles to scarecrows, warm country images abound in this delightful alphabet poem.

About this title

About the Author

Lesa Cline-Ransome and James Ransome have collaborated on many award-winning picture books for children. These include Satchel Paige, which was an ALA Best Book for Children and Words Set Me Free: The Story of Young Frederick Douglass, which received starred reviews in Booklist and School Library Journal. The Quilt Alphabet was praised as "A blue-ribbon ABC book that combines bright, folksy oil paintings and lilting riddle-poems," in a starred review in Publishers Weekly and called "a feast for the eyes" in School Library Journal. They live in the Hudson River Valley region of New York.

Reviews

reS-Gr 3-Vibrantly illustrated, this alphabet poem book is a feast for the eyes. Bold folk-art paintings explore country life from A to Z. The opening, cheerful quilted endpaper states: "Each letter has a poem. Every poem is a clue. The answers are in back." Each letter is framed by a quilting square and accompanies the verse and the corresponding artwork, which allows readers to guess the intended word. Some spreads are particularly striking, such as a still life of apples for A, glowing jack-o'-lanterns for J, drifting leaves for L, and a swooping owl for O. Others are not as successful; for K, the painting of the kettle is dark and muddy. Other items include a birdhouse, a hobbyhorse, Raggedy Ann dolls, and a rooster. The poems are quite lovely, but the sophisticated vocabulary will preclude independent reading by beginners. Like all alphabet books, there is a stretch for some letters. An X on a cross-stitch embroidery, sunny yellow woods for Y, and zigzag for Z are not as concrete as other examples. Perfect for one-on-one sharing, this delightful book is full of bright visual and verbal images.

Alice Casey Smith, Sayreville Public Schools, Parlin, NJ

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

The husband-and-wife Ransomes (Satchel Paige) skillfully fashion a blue-ribbon ABC book that combines bright, folksy oil paintings and lilting riddle-poems. Alongside each painting, a rhyming verse describes an object beginning with a particular letter of the alphabet. For example, for the letter "P," the words "One part sugar, two parts spice/ Baked inside each sweet slice/ Seasoned with love, sprinkled with care/ Fresh-baked fragrance fills the air" are paired with a mouthwatering portrait of a lattice-topped pie. Throughout, a colorful quilted square depicting the appropriate alphabet letter appears alongside each verse, and the artist clearly showcases the riddle's answer in his work. A list of answers appears on the final page, too (readers may be surprised by the answer to the "X" riddle). Much of the sunny, country-inspired artwork is as crisp and fresh looking as clean laundry flapping on the clothesline. Several compositions capture the vibrant, pungent oranges, reds and yellows of autumn, including a scene of a glowing family of jack-o'-lanterns and a nighttime parade of trick-or-treaters that memorably illuminate the "J" page. The artist also adds dashes of humor, as when the text for "H" describes "Rodeo rider or out on the plain/ Home again on his own terrain," and the artwork pictures not a bucking stallion but a rocking horse. Ages 2-6.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Ages 2-6. Boxed into a quiltlike square, each letter of the alphabet begins a word that is the subject of a rhyming riddle, with a fetching illustration offering a visual clue. For example, Macintosh, Red Delicious, and Granny Smith apples, strewn across a checked tablecloth, colorfully declare apple to be the answer to the letter A riddle. Z is the most demanding, showing a rural scene with a winding, "zigzag," road. The four-line riddles, sometimes quite lyrical, are deceivingly simple and introduce some fairly sophisticated vocabulary. Thus, the lush illustrations, worked in thickly applied luminous colors, provide welcome hints. An inviting sampler of scenes and a challenging alphabet primer. Ellen Mandel
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Holiday House
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0823414531
• ISBN 13: 9780823414536
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Ransome James E.
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 48