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Library | Material Type | Shelf Number | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
Searching... Ginter Park | Book | PICTURE ERNST | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Hull Street | Book | PICTURE ERNST | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... West End | Book | PICTURE ERNST | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... West End | Book | PICTURE ERNST | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
At every turn these letters are full of surprises. Imagine! What other things can you discover hiding in the alphabet?
Reviews (2)
Horn Book Review
(Preschool, Primary) Using bold graphics, Ernst fashions an alphabet that's an exercise in visual imagination rather than in phonics and initial letters. Each broad, sans-serif letter fills a square of a sophisticatedly dissonant hue, which in turn is broadly bordered in shiny black on the square page. A single sentence, divided and printed to be read from the letter's four sides, invites readers to rotate the book and decode suggested interpretations: ""S becomes / a snipped curl, / a circular slide, / a caterpillar""; or, more inventively, ""K dreams of being / a picnic table, / a mama duck and two little ducklings, / a Martian's antennae."" A few of the suggestions are a bit of a stretch (how exactly is G, resting on its crosspiece, ""a magic wand casting a spell""?). But the overall effect is both handsome and intriguing; kids may well be inspired to pair basic forms with their own creative descriptions. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
Ernst, known for funny watercolors and fractured fairy tales, makes a startling departure from her norm in this design-heavy alphabet book. As the title promises, readers will be rotating the book to see how the brightly colored cut-paper letters change with each 90-degree turn. Each letter is set into a black-bordered square against a harmonizing negative space; the hand-lettered text appears in white, turning as needed along the border. The narrative itself imagines the secret lives the letters yearn for, as "B masquerades as / a pair of goggles, / half a butterfly, / two windows in a castle tower." On any given page, the image may be created by the letter itself or by the negative space surrounding it, so the interstices between the legs of an E become an electric plug, or (in a moment of great inspiration) the yellow triangles formed by a green N become "two tortilla chips headed for guacamole." The act of turning the book 104 times in all (4 X 26) can become tedious, but the novel concept freshens up the canon of abecedaries. (Picture book. 4-8) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
