Alphabetabum: An Album of Rare Photographs and Medium Verses - Hardcover

Radunsky, Vladimir; Raschka, Chris

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1590178173 ISBN 13: 9781590178171

Publisher: NYR Children's Collection, 2014

Synopsis

A New York Review Children’s Collection Original
 
An ALPHABET book?
An ALBUM of old photos?
We named it ALPHABETABUM.

Here celebrated artists and authors Vladimir Radunsky and Chris Raschka put a delightful new old-fashioned spin on the alphabet book. Radunsky has selected portraits of children from his spectacular collection of antique black and-white photographs. Raschka has given the children names and written deliciously teasing rhymes about them.

The result is ALPHABETABUM, a book of letters and pictures to which readers will happily return again and again both to look and to learn.

About this title

About the Author

Vladimir Radunsky has published more than thirty books for children and received numerous awards, including several New York Times Best Illustrated Book Awards and Bologna’s Critici in Erba. Some of his books have appeared on the New York Times best-seller list.

Chris Raschka has written and/or illustrated more than sixty books for children, including Yo! Yes?, Charlie Parker Played Be Bop, Mysterious Thelonious, Sluggy Slug, Five for a Little One, A Poke in the I, and The Hello, Goodbye Window, and has received a Caldecott Honor, two Caldecott Awards, the Ezra Jack Keats Award, and five New York Times Best Illustrated Book Awards.

Reviews

Gr 3 Up—In this digital age, actual photographs are quickly becoming the forgotten flotsam of flea markets. So many people and memories have been lost to the ages, and all that remains are countless discarded anonymous photos. It is this common and mysterious source material that Radunsky and Raschka drew upon to create this beautifully produced picture book. Radunsky, like so many vernacular photography collectors today, has spent hours sifting through bins of photos at flea markets and antique shops, saving snapshots, cabinet cards, and cartes de visite from obscurity. He has selected favorite images of children from his personal collection, and Raschka has assigned each child an alliterative name and peculiar personality by penning poetic captions based on what is depicted in the photo. The photos start with Awkward Agnes Alexandra and continue through Jazzy Zelda Zip and feature slight smiles, clasped hands, cryptic countenances, and photographic props that inform the playful rhymes, taking readers on an alphabetical journey that brings new discovery to these lost and forgotten children. The book's design, with large reproductions graced with photography studio stamps from around the world, reinforces and confirms the notion that regardless if readers grew up in Brooklyn, Boston, Budapest, or Berlin, they have all, at one time or another, had to dress up in their Sunday best and pose for photographs. This work speaks directly to descriptive observation and creativity, which can serve as a jumping-off point for programming and educational opportunities for teachers and librarians.—Billy Parrott, New York Public Library

Edition details

• Publisher: NYR Children's Collection
• Publication date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1590178173
• ISBN 13: 9781590178171
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 80