Amazing ABC

Did you know that Lego is based in Billund, Denmark?  Ironic, since you can't spell Billund without build... 

THREE PROS

*There's a reason Lego has been so successful for so long with this age group... so why not extend its magic to another educational sector  

*The images of Sean Kenney's creations are a million times more fun to marvel at than your typical ABC book
*The cake and the piano are just awesome

THREE CONS 

*It might be a little unfair, but I have a problem with author/builder re-using his models across the Lego board book line (as evidenced by the back cover) 
*I'm surprised at how imperfect the US map is (especially in the normally rectangular Four Corners region) given that it's a 2-D design 

*I say "go fly a kite" to the page dedicated to the letter K and also question the type of Legos used to make the yoyo

ONE DAD'S OPINION
Learning the alphabet is one of the primary building blocks of toddler education.  After reading this book to my son and daughter, I am more than happy to recommend it to parents looking for a quality ABC title that maybe has flown under the radar.  My only non-trivial gripe with it that is non-mentioned above would be that I would have liked to have seen Kenney use Duplos, since they are designed for children who would be reading this.  That said, I know there's no way the pictures could be even half as intricate if this was the case.  Just some constructive criticism for the future:)    


BUY / Borrow / Donate / Destroy

LMNO Peas

Q, R, S, T, U, Vvvvvery average. 

THREE PROS

*Keith Baker manages to get his peas to do a lot of things, so much so that your eye will get a (fun) workout trying to track down what every pea is doing on each page   

*Gets your kids thinking about all the ways they can be active in this world
*Some humorous inside jokes for parents (like the Elvis "king" pea and the band called Pod)

THREE CONS 

*The writing has almost has a diarrhea dump feel to it -- not unlike a bad batch of those tiny patina pellets 
*Wasn't a fan of the way the text and images were distributed -- some letters got the two-page treatment, while others were whirled in between two other symbols and given but a single phrase 

*The four instances where tiny speech bubbles were used didn't add to the story and, if they do anything, distract the reader

ONE DAD'S OPINION
Deciding on the final rating for this is going to be harder than asking a toddler to finish a plate full of green vegetables.  On the one hand, Baker's effort is bursting at the seams with material and has a happy vibe to it.  Conversely, it sounds like it was written by someone who might be forced to eat peas on the regular, such as an adult ward of the state who suffered a traumatic brain injury or some other debilitating cognitive condition.  Okay, so this is an exaggeration, but not as much as you would think.]  You see the quandary I am in right?  In the end, I think of it much like frozen peas at the supermarket.  I wouldn't be disappointed if I got them, but I wouldn't be that excited about them either.  Moreover, I would never go out of my way to track them down.  Weak Borrow. 

Buy / BORROW / Donate / Destroy

My First Arabic Alphabet Book

It's high time I review something else written in the 4th most popular language in the world.  [I'm still looking for a book at the DC Library in the #1 language (Chinese).] 

THREE PROS

*You and your kid might, just might, retain some Arabic from looking through this   

*Claims to offer the opportunity to "have fun learning the Arabic alphabet" -- perhaps this will be the case for a certain percentage of native-speaking families
*Siddiqa Juma was able to pay down a portion of her bills

THREE CONS 

*Yes, there are some balloons and things around the borders, but literally nothing else illustratively creative 
*Especially since the title is in English, you'd think they would have included a pronunciation guide for the non-intuitive symbols like Qaf 

*The explanatory page on the back inside cover chose format over spacing -- and it's so obvious since these are the only sentences in the whole thing

ONE DAD'S OPINION
Giving this effort a rating was as easy as alif, ba, ta.  There are no pictures outside of the alphabetic symbols themselves and there is no story connecting the letters to each other.  It's about as utilitarian as it gets.  All that said, there's nothing egregiously bad about it.  If at least one person in your child's life isn't versed in the language, it doesn't make a whole lot of practical sense.  [I gave it the bilingual tag just because I wanted to differentiate it from most items on this site.]  Looking at MFAAB from A to Z, I can't help but to give it a Donate. 

Buy / Borrow / DONATE / Destroy

Alphabet Living

After reading what amounts to roughly one thousand words in this book, I find it interesting that the two most memorable for me are "Hobo Dan."  As in the pseudonym of one of the co-authors (real name: Daniel MacIntyre).  So I went to their website to learn how it came to be.  I'll let you be the judge. 

THREE PROS

*Aspires to be the most inspirational book on your shelf, and perhaps succeeds -- now if only it was digestible in one sitting   

*You'd be hard-pressed to find another story with even half of the vocab housed in this one
*Searching for the puppy in each illustration gave me something else to do if I wanted zone out from the heavy text for a sec

THREE CONS 

*Parent or child, I just don't see how anyone could sit down and read through the whole thing at once 
*Abby and Zeke as character names for an alphabet story are totally fine; Ay2zee as the name of the puppy, however, Blows2TheMax 

*Almost seems like a throwaway line to have the last piece of text be "thank you for reading me"

ONE DAD'S OPINION
It's just so daunting!  What age is it ideally suited for?  Is it a gateway to cult life?  Is it so overwhelmingly positive in message that it'll turn my son or daughter into a freakishly happy child who will snap at age seventeen when a gnat smashes against the windshield of the car he or she is driving?  Alright, let me dial it back down.  Seriously, since it is next to impossible to sit down and finish, are folks expected to read one or two pages a night?  Would most people go out of their way to do this or would they rather just pick up a book they can go cover to cover on?  I tend to think the latter is more probable.  As much as it pains me to leave a negative imprint on something meant to be so overwhelmingly positive, I have no choice. 

Buy / Borrow / DONATE / Destroy

Z Is For Moose

Exactly. 

THREE PROS

*Loved the way they built the drama all the way up to the final letter, leading us to wonder almost throughout how they were going to rectify the situation  

*Having the zebra referee (funny it's own right to sports fans) act as the control factor in this experiment really made the whole thing work
*Paul O. Zelinsky's illustrations weren't my favorite ever, but they definitely fit the playful atmosphere dictated by the subject matter 

THREE CONS 

*I might have put a question mark after the phrases on the 'D' page (where the moose kicks the duck off the stage) so that it led to a more clear articulation of it not being a true statement (especially critical since it's the first instance of what ends up being the central theme of the story) 
*I am normally not a fan of the pure chaos exhibited on the 'O,P,Q' page, even though I like it here; as such, I would be remiss not to point it out 

*Similarly, the crossing out of words with faux crayon just looks tacky to me, but it had a purpose and might be humorous to your tyke

ONE DAD'S OPINION
Kelly Bingham took a risk and it paid off.  Messing with the alphabet is usually a pathway to disaster for me, since it tampers with the educational wiring we as parents have tried so hard to install into our kids' minds.  But, because Bingham limited the moose's attempts at interference, she was able to deliver a funny twist on what can often be a rather pedestrian theme. Consequently, you've got to congratulate her for having the rocky mountain oysters (or the female equivalent) to go for it!     

BUY / Borrow / Donate / Destroy

Country Road ABC

Take me home to the place I belong (or anywhere else that avoids this particular country road). 

THREE PROS

*If you want your kids to really understand what it's like to be a farmer without all of the halcyonic bull, then choose this title because it doesn't shy away from anything (that's assuming you're cool with images of industrial milking and inoculation)  

*The farm glossary in the back is very detailed and does a great job defining everything in the book (but if you don't know it's there on the first read-through it doesn't much help now does it?)
*Holy crap - this guy thanked seventy (70!) separate people in his acknowledgments -- that has to be some kind of record

THREE CONS 

*Try explaining any of the following items to your toddler completely out of the blue: ammonia fertilizer, disking, grinding feed, oat delivery, or the concepts of latitude and longitude down to the seconds 
*Lost the intended audience early on by mentioning candy on the third letter of the alphabet and then failing to make the picture obviously show some sort of sweets 

*That transition from X to Y sounds plain stupid when read aloud (and I was actually disappointed that the author didn't just leave X out altogether since he made a very pointed mention of that letter in the foreword)

ONE DAD'S OPINION
This one was extremely tough for me to rate because I could truly see both sides of the argument.  Should I give it credit for its uniqueness and the way it exposes kids to things no other alphabet book would ever even think of touching?  Or should I ding it for being so strange and unrelatable for almost every kid from the city or suburbs that would ever think of opening it. In the end, I just had to give it a Donate for one simple reason:  I honestly think this might be the first time my son laughed at something.  You know, like in a "what the 'f' is this?" kid of way.  Obviously, I couldn't have been prouder of him than I was at that moment.  Unfortunately for author Arthur Geisert, that doesn't bode well for his Country Road ABC.    

Buy / Borrow / DONATE / Destroy

Word Builder

Take the following ten letters, presented in random order, and build two words to reveal how I feel about Ann Whitford Paul's book: K,I,N,D,A,S,U,C,K,Y.  Okay, go! 

THREE PROS

*Letters combine into words, which beget sentences, and subsequently are arranged into sentences, then chapters, before finally giving rise to a book -- I guess it's good for children to learn all of this early, but it's not exactly the scintillating fare audiences of any age beg for  

*Kurt Cyrus' illustrations are big and bold, although not that inspired, and, frankly, rather boilerplate
*The yellow and black background on the inside covers pops nicely

THREE CONS 

*Oh, hey, the author repeated the same information (in a slightly different way) during the second half of the book that was found in the first half -- she'd probably argue that this helps kids understand the principles better, but I would retort that they could just reread the book if it mattered that much to them 
*There is a huge disparity in the recognizability (look, I just built a controversial word that is only in the world's third-tier dictionaries) of component letters when looking at the buildings being dropped into the "chapter cities" versus the existing structures 

*A jackhammer does something completely different than a hammer, but I'm not sure Paul and Cyrus remembered that

ONE DAD'S OPINION
Here's another word for you: lackluster.  I was actively disappointed this wasn't better because I thought the link between construction and literary structure could have led to some good times.  Instead, this book is more like the Washington Gas contractors who have been digging holes into the sidewalk on our block over the last month...just sitting there, pretending to do enough to collect an inflated paycheck.  There's not a whole lot I can do about either of these situations, so I choose to focus on most anything else.    

Buy / Borrow / DONATE / Destroy

Colors, Numbers, Letters

I'm starting to think these all-in-one books are all marketing and no meat. 

THREE PROS

*Despite what I said above, there is something to be said for having these concepts fit easily in the palm of your hand  

*The closing color page (where all of the different mice play together) is cute and could be ambitiously viewed as an early nod to racial harmony
*Having the green mouse pull a four-leaf clover in a field of regular clovers shows what Leo Lionni could have done elsewhere with a little more effort

THREE CONS 

*There are wordless books that make you excited to provide your own dialog on every page and then there is this 
*More on this point: if you're gonna start the book with colors sans verbal description, then why not stick with that theme (by having the mice pose in symbol form) instead of putting numbers and letters all over the last two thirds of it 

*The rodents enlisted for "7" and "8" are just standing there -- comes off as lazy since the rest of the numbered examples have them interacting in some fashion

ONE DAD'S OPINION
Can you blame Lionni for grabbing the low-hanging fruit of kidlit?  Not really.  A guy's gotta pay his bills, yo!  But that doesn't mean KBR Nation has to take a bite out of this poisoned apple.  No.  Instead, you can get all the colors, numbers, and letters you'll ever need from works such as this, that, and the other.    

Buy / Borrow / Donate / DESTROY

The Z Was Zapped

If have a letter torture fetish, then this book will rock your world.  If you're part of the other 99.99999% of the population, not so much. 

THREE PROS

*The black-and-white illustrations are like a mastery course in shading and perspective  

*It was kind of fun to guess what word would correspond to the depiction of each letter
*A few weeks ago, we attended our first professional puppet show, and reading this felt like we just attended our second -- cool concept (abstractly speaking)

THREE CONS 

*I absolutely hated how I had to flip a page to read the text for each letter presented 
*Any innocence your child had left before reading this will be stripped away after viewing images of drowning, nailing and kidnapping 

*When a publisher lists seven superlative reviews on the inside jacket cover for the illustrator/author's (notice the order those words were presented) other work, you know they probably had a tough time finding someone to do the same for the book you are holding

ONE DAD'S OPINION
What we have here is an excellent case study in the value of taking risks within an established category of kidlit.  With all the alphabet books out there, an author really needs to do something special to break through.    Chris Van Allsburg obviously understands that, judging from the tact he took in TZWZ.  But there's a huge difference between good memorable and bad; and, unfortunately for him, his final product missed the mark for me.  The first two cons were more than enough for me to zap it straight to hell, but I spared the work because its pictures were really impressive, albeit inappropriate.  Isn't it ironic that by giving TZWZ a better rating, I'm watering down the notoriety a Destroy would have given something that strived to be so unique?    

Buy / Borrow / DONATE / Destroy

E-mergency!

E-xceptionally e-xecuted e-ffort e-xpedites e-xtant e-nhancement (of) e-veryone's e-njoyment. 

THREE PROS

*Taken by itself, the concept of a (Latin-based language) world without the letter 'E' was a great concept for an alphabet book... which was only magnified by the artistic stylings and whimsical approach of Tom Lichtenheld and E-zra Fields-Meyer  

*Deftly mixes in some real teaching points (like the vowel/consonant line the letter 'Y' toes or the link between 'Q' and 'U') e-ven though hilarity is the driving force throughout
*Somehow found a way to give a unique personality to e-very letter of the alphabet 

THREE CONS 

*Having 'O' stand in for 'E' for the bulk of the story was e-ssential to the plot, but did make it incredibly hard to read out loud at a normal pace (it takes an e-xtra nanosecond for your brain to comprehend what's happening e-ach instance the substitution occurs... time that wouldn't matter if you were reading silently to yourself) 
*Using a multitude of acronyms makes perfect sense for this type of thing (and fit in well with the theme), but takes away from the e-xperience slightly since you will e-nd up stopping to e-xplain what they mean 

*I laughed out loud when I saw the letter 'P' draining it in a distant bathroom shot, but not e-very parent is as big a fan of off-color humor as me

ONE DAD'S OPINION
I am not good with names (or faces for that matter) so I had no idea until just now that Lichtenheld also worked on my last Buy, Shark vs. Train.  Looks like Peter Brown is getting a run for his money as the #1 Kid Book Ratings talent.  In the words of Rick Ross, this guy's a Boss. And, from the looks of it, an almost automatic Buy.  Honestly, I can't foresee a better alphabet book e-xisting, assuming your child is old e-nough to get the majority of the concepts in here.  If that age hasn't arrived yet, might I suggest this link instead?    

BUY / Borrow / Donate / Destroy

The Everything Book

Hey!  Let's slap a bunch of crap together and sell it to kids!                     

THREE PROS

*This is the first book I have reviewed that covers letters, numbers, shapes, and colors; so, in theory, it's a value to get all of that in one place for $20 
*When authors bury a hidden game inside of their work (in this case it's finding all the ladybugs), I usually award a few positive points -- though this attempt basically nosedives due to the sheer number of items included (119!)
*Gotta give credit to Denise Fleming for creating a cityscape using only the most basic of shapes     

THREE CONS 

*I absolutely hate how the author feels the need to attribute all but one of her nursery rhymes to sources she claims are "Anonymous" just so that she can properly reference the Robin Redbreast piece from Mother Goose -- put your lame-o bibliography in the back if you are so concerned about copyrights, or better yet, don't bother with it at all  

*The page on body parts looks like a dictionary shat on and around two unfortunate little kids

*I defy you to explain the Faces page to your boy or girl without sounding like a total idiot

ONE DAD'S OPINION

To be fair, my son doesn't hate this book as much as we do...although he does look like the poster child for toddler ADD by the time we get to TEB's second half.  It's pretty easy to diagnose this variation in opinions.  After only two and a half years on this earth, his defenses aren't strong enough to withstand an all-out assault on the senses, so his only recourse is to sit there and stare.  Meanwhile, my wife and I are old enough to know that a lot of little pieces of poop still add up to one big piece of poop.  As the old saying goes, you shouldn't try to be everything to everyone.  Too bad Denise Fleming wasn't familiar with this particular anonymous quote...                    

Buy / Borrow / Donate / DESTROY