All About A B C (My First Easy and Fun Books)

A girl imagines seeing an alligator eating an apple, a buffalo in a bath, and twenty-four other animals engaged in whimsical activities from A to Z

ea. vol: unpaged. bibliog. (My First Easy and Fun Bks.) CIP. Gareth Stevens. 1987. PSm $8.95. PreSchool-K The humorous alphabet book is the more impressive of these two British imports. The text begins: `` Have you ever seen. . . an alligator eating an apple? . . .a buffalo in a bathtub? . . .a camel wearing a crown? . . . Neither have I. ' ' The realistically rendered paintings of animals in absurd situations are in soft watercolors with the words beginning with the letter at the bottom of the page in boldface type and the lower-case letter at the top of the page bounded by two smaller individual pictures of the objects. There's plenty of child appeal here, but the omission of capital letters detracts. Double-page spreads of flora and fauna in vibrant watercolors highlight a counting book that is marred by a textbook tone and format. Not only are children asked to `` help' ' Sam, a young jungle explorer, count animals, but they are also requested to tally beasts exhibiting specific (physical) traits and behaviors. While the former task is straightforward, the latter is likely to prove challenging, in part due to the subtle details of the illustrations. Lists of related activities are appended in both books. Since children discover most of these games naturally (``count the number of red cars that pass your house'' etc.), it seems unnecessary. Julie Corsaro, University of Chicago Laboratory Schools
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.