Departments : Teaching With Children's Books :
Alphabet Books for Everyone
By Lisa Von Drasek
They're not just for young children, and they often teach much more than A through Z
Alphabet books are great tools for reinforcing letter recognition, building phonemic awareness and supporting pre-reading skills, but they can also inspire older students' writing and fact-based research. The structure of the alphabet invites older kids to create their own illustrated collections of classroom events or poems, or they could do research to put together a thematic book such as an alphabet of birds. The books presented here range from a wordless alphabet book, to a historical look at race cars, to a primer on Elizabethan life.
Alphabet art
A new title for professional development is Art Across the Alphabet: Over 100 Art Experiences that Enrich Early Literacy by Kelly Justus Campbell (Gryphon House, 2003, ISBN: 0-876-59289-2). These activities for children ages 3-6 range from small individual projects like a coffee-filter dragonfly to a group painting of a giant "G."
Wild kingdom
Animal Action ABC by Karen Pandell and Art Wolf with photography by Nancy Sheehan (Handprint, 2003, ISBN: 1-929-76692-0) features full-color photos of animals in action. The "A" page displays a whale's tail and suggests "Arch your back and stretch your limbs, your body forms a tail." This title would be a wonderful beginning for a session of movement. For ages three and up.
Fanciful dioramas assembled from found objects illustrate Ellsworth's Extraordinary Electric Ears.
Whimsical alliteration
In Ellsworth's Extraordinary Electric Ears and Other Amazing Alphabet Anecdotes by Valorie Fisher (Atheneum, 2003, ISBN: 0-689-85030-1), alliterative sentences such as "Dot dreamed of driving a delightfully dainty dump truck" describe colorful photos of toys. Dot is a duck driving a truck that's filled with dice. Invite older children to create their own alphabetic dioramas. Ages five and up.
Building literacy
In B Is for Bulldozer: A Construction ABC by June Sobel (Harcourt, 2003, ISBN: 0-152-02250-3), the seasons change as an amusement park is built over the course of a year. Each page presents a word from the alphabetic sequence in a sentence. For ages three and up.
Calling all sports fans
Baseball ABC by Florence Cassen Mayers (Abrams, 1994, ISBN: 0-810-91938-9) pairs the letters with photographs of team letters. The letter "P" is from the Phillies and the page shows team pennants. "D" features the logo of the Detroit Tigers and the text explains the baseball diamond. Read this title to kick off a class alphabet mural with each letter representing symbols of interests such as surfing, fishing, ballet, dragons, etc. For ages five and up.
A mysterious alphabet
The Alphabet Room by Sara Pinto (Bloomsbury, 2003, ISBN: 1-582-34841-3) is almost wordless. First you see three large green apples for "A," and when you lift the flap, you see the three apples on the floor of a bare yellow room. The "B" page shows two bowls. Lift the flap and the bowls join the apples in the empty room. For ages six and up.
"G" is for giraffe in ABC: A Child's First Alphabet Book by Alison Jay.
Reprinted by permission of philomel books.
Hide and seek
Just as fascinating is ABC: A Child's First Alphabet Book by Alison Jay (Dutton, 2003, ISBN: 0-525-46951-6). On page after page, the main object is obvious. "A" is for apple, "B" is for balloon, "C" is for cow...but what is a balloon doing in the "A" painting? On the "B" page, the balloon is the dominating image, but In the distance are two tiny cows giving a hint for "C." This is the perfect book for sequencing and prediction skills. For ages four and up.
Music from A to Z
Next we have M Is for Music by Kathleen Krull, illustrated by Stacy Innerst (Harcourt, 2003, ISBN: 0-152-01438-1). "B is for Beatles," but you'll find other "B" words represented as well: banjo, bassoon, Broadway. For ages six and up.
High-octane ABC's
The Racecar Alphabet by Brian Floca (Atheneum, 2003, ISBN: 0-689-85091-3) celebrates 100 years of race cars with alliteration: "Eyes in the audience, each open and eager, expecting excitement (enduring exhaust)." For ages three and up.
Q is for queen
For an alphabet that's tied to social studies, look no further than The Queen's Progress: An Elizabethan Alphabet by Celeste Davidson Mannis (Viking, 2003, ISBN: 0-670-03612-9). This is the story of Queen Elizabeth's caravan traveling across England. For ages six and up.
Girl power
For American history and looking ahead to Women's History Month in March there is A is for Abigail: An Almanac of Amazing American Women, by Lynne Cheney (Simon and Schuster, 2003, ISBN: 0-689-85819-1). It contains the familiar – "I is for Laura Ingalls" – to the not-so-familiar, such as seven-year-old Fannie Peck who walked the Mormon Trail in 1852. For ages six and up.
Your state's alphabet
Sleeping Bear Press has a series of United States alphabet books such as B is for Bluegrass: A Kentucky Alphabet, by Mary Ann McCabe Riehle (ISBN: 1-585-36056-2) and Y is for Yellowhammer: An Alabama Alphabet, by Carol Crane (ISBN: 1-585-36118-6). Download related classroom activities at www.sleepingbearpress.com
Lisa Von Drasek is Children's Librarian at the School for Children, Bank Street College of Education, in New York, NY.
October, 2003, Vol.34, No.2
