Notably Clever Alphabet Books

Not only are clever alphabet books entertaining, but they hold the attention of children longer than more ordinary alphabet books, even older children for whom the abc's are old hat. When you are teaching letter names and sounds, keeping children engaged is half the battle. Many children need a hook or two to hang letter recognition on, and these books pony up.


Q Is for Duck: An Alphabet Guessing Game
by Mary Elting and Michael Folsom
Pictures by Jack Kent
"Q is for duck. Why? Because ducks quack." Owls hoot, frogs leap, snakes wiggle and so on to earn their letter affiliations (H, L, and W respectively.) Kids will love the easy guessing game as they wait for the page to turn to answer the "Why?" The letter Z wraps up the alphabet by coordination with the letter A at the beginning of the book.



The Z Was Zapped: A Play in Twenty-Six Acts
by Chris Van Allsburg
The first page shows a large, three-dimensional capital A standing on a theater stage being pelted with rocks tumbling down from above. The next page matter-of-factly states "The A was in an Avalanche." Each giant letter is portrayed in a different plight that the reader tries to guess before it is revealed on the next page. Each predicament naturally begins with the letter it describes, and offers strong visual definitions of many verbs. I love the M melting. As we have come to expect of this author/illustrator, the drawings are in black and white and loaded with lifelike detail. My students love this book, and it ranks as my all-time favorite.


Tomorrow's Alphabet (Mulberry Books)
by George Shannon
Pictures by Donald Crews
The book begins "A is for seed" leading the reader to wonder how that could possibly be. Then on the facing page the answer is given, "tomorrow's apple". Each letter proceeds to surprise us, like T is for bread because it is future toast. Z is my favorite: it is for countdown. Can you guess why?

Story Props for Alphabet Books