Review by New York Times Review
A GOOD ALPHABET book is like a raucous playroom for language, persuading children to internalize the ABCs by turning the letters into toys. Rhymes and rhythm, metaphor and simile, alliteration, assonance and consonance - the ABC book's verbal gymnastics match the alphabet's inherently visual nature, making the genre not just a feast for young readers but a rewarding medium for illustrators and designers too. Five new ABC books revel in that word and image play. With its dark red and sepia tones, the punningly titled "Alphabetabum" evokes a lost world of European composition books, exotic passports, vintage photo albums and old-school primers. It addresses children and nostalgic adult readers alike, with a rhyming verse for each letter accompanied by a 19th- or early-20th-century studio photo or carte de visite. Some readers might find something disturbing about this appropriation for amusement of found images of real people from the past. Take the cover image, of a small girl in a short dress with a sash, costumed for a dance performance, perhaps, looking out at the camera with a pleased smile, hands behind her back. Inside, the rhyme for A calls her "Awkward Agnes Alexandra" who "shows her ample ankles/although her knees are grander." I want to protest for her sake that there's nothing amiss about her ankles in their white socks. Still, children, like adults, might enjoy the chance to meet the eyes of this "Agnes" or that "Margo" gazing back at us from a vanished century. Vintage photos, like our own early reading memories, are inevitably laced with a sense of lost time. In "Alphabetabum," the rhymes infuse the letters with affect, reminding us of that other use we make of the alphabet: bringing order to random accumulations - such as old photos of strangers - that can elicit hard-to-define emotions. (One hopes that someone will claim some of these children as ancestors!) "Once Upon an Alphabet," by Oliver Jeffers ("How to Catch a Star," "The Day the Crayons Quit"), offers "short stories for all the letters," a time-honored approach to the genre, though Jeffers uses mostly prose rather than the usual all-rhyme. The letters appear as colorful outsize hand-drawn capitals on the "title page" of each story. For A, we get "An Astronaut," in bright teal on black. A little white figure stares up, daunted, at the giant letter; as we learn, he's afraid of heights. Others, recalling Edward Gorey's wicked "The Gashlycrumb Times," fare even less well than the astronaut. Poor Helen who lives in H's "half a house" rolls out of bed into the sea one morning; T's "terrible typewriter" conjures a typist-eating monster. C's cup, which dreams of living on the windowsill, falls and breaks in the leap from the cupboard. In the generous spirit of this book, though, O's octopus and owl, who "search for problems," glue it back together. The cup ends up broken again in the margins of the typewriter story, but children will enjoy detecting such morsels that trail through the pages. Michaël Escoffier and Kris Di Giacomo innovate on the ABC genre in "Take Away the A" by reminding us, like the loftiest deconstructionists, that language is built around trivial and arbitrary distinctions that can mark vast differences. One small change and everything changes: "Without the A," they show us, "the Beast is the Best." As profound and stimulating as adults might find the conceit, everything about this attractive book warmly addresses a child. Di Giacomo's palimpsest-like illustrations featuring appealing animal protagonists are their own reward. A little white rat threads its way through, its tiny reaction shots standing in for the child reader's. Wolves, witches, a fiddling cat and seven dwarves dance across the pages, gesturing to the wealth of children's literature beyond the ABCs. With rereading and maturing, young readers will discover the jokes gradually, if they don't at first go. All alphabet books require mastery of the letters in order to read them, but this one manages that paradox with genius. the aggressively hip "Alphabetics" mostly sticks to a conventional alphabet-book formula, with alliterative phrases on the left page and a full-page image on the right of each spread. Dawid Ryski's Boteroesque figures, with huge bodies and tiny heads and limbs, in a retro palette heavy on teal, gold and russet, illustrate the pointedly surreal free verses: "Atticus the altruistic astronaut/admires an ascending apple/while aviating through an anti-gravity abyss." (A is for astronaut these days, and yet inevitably that old apple still floats into view.) The verses rely on so many obscure words that the book includes a glossary, where you can look up "penny-farthing" (an early bicycle) and "lucha libre" (Mexican freestyle wrestling). You can also look up "carnie" and find the unkind characterization that carnival workers "frequently happen to be missing teeth." And, perhaps in keeping with its retro references to things like the jitterbug and mid-20th-century camera brands, elsewhere there's an incongruous image of headdress-wearing Indians. The Brooklyn/Portland artisanal aesthetic - there are "geek-chic glasses," "fro yo" and "quinoa" - might attract certain parents, and the alliterative verses are sometimes zingy, but it verges on amateurism in places, including some typos. Squarely in the primary-color, animal-intense tradition of the modern ABC book, Elizabeth Schoonmaker's "Square Cat ABC" brings back the orange kitty Eula from "Square Cat," in what is, yes, a lovely square book. A brilliant full-page red A for "Amazing" features a blue-and-pink mouse sliding down the leg of the letter into the next page, where she or he befriends the square cat, who's digging in her garden. Fans of "Square Cat" will recognize the theme of friendship's embrace of difference, as Eula introduces the frightened mouse to her pal the porcupine. Schoonmaker's page-filling red letters and bright watercolors enhance the short and sweet story meant for the youngest readers, which associates the letters with everyday words that a child might say: "Whoa," "Stop," "Hooray." When Eula persists in finding spinach "extremely Yucky," the friendly mouse offers her "Zucchini, perhaps?" Touches like that give "Square Cat ABC" the makings of a classic: Its substance comes from wearing its visual and verbal cleverness so lightly. PATRICIA CRAIN, a professor of English at New York University, is the author of "The Story of A: The Alphabetization of America From 'The New England Primer' to 'The Scarlet Letter.'"
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [December 14, 2014]
Review by Booklist Review
This alphabet book, which begins each sentence of text with a succeeding letter of the alphabet, features Eula, a square cat, who is nevertheless extremely hip. Mouse finds her starting a new project, growing vegetables. Hooray! Mouse wants spinach, but Ick! says Eula. I DON'T like spinach. As the mouse scrambles through J to O, a double-page spread introduces Porcupine. Turns out the prickly fellow is a friend of Square Cat, but, unbelievably, he likes spinach, too. Cat finally gives it a try but finds the leafy green extremely Yucky, so Mouse introduces zucchini. Paired with simple text and on abundant white space, watercolor, gouache, pencils, and ink illustrate the personalities of the active little blue-gray mouse and his orange feline friend, decked out in a green sunhat. Bright-red letters highlight the alphabet and make the story pop. Swirling vegetables and garden tools contrast with the stolid cat and the geometric design of her square (not curling) tail, an added bit of humor. Pair with Z Is for Moose (2012), another story where the animals take over the narration.--Gepson, Lolly Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 2-Eula, a square-shaped cat who does her best to fit into her round world, showcases the letters of the alphabet while gardening. Rather than presenting each letter in a list of corresponding animals or objects, the amazing feline moves from A to Z with the assistance of a hungry and gregarious blue mouse as they discuss the flavorful merits of the spinach growing in Eula's garden. Unlike Eula, Mouse loves "green, leafy spinach." So does her porcupine friend. At the insistence of Mouse, the cat reluctantly tries a leaf and exclaims, "Whoa! Extremely yucky! Undeterred, her tiny friend concludes their conversation by asking, "Zucchini perhaps?" Schoonmaker illustrates the square cat with spare but colorful watercolors that feature each highlighted letter in oversize, decorative print surrounded by plenty of white space. Eula wears a floppy, green and yellow hat and a disgruntled expression, while the mouse scampers insouciantly across each page. Young readers will giggle over this unconventional alphabet book and perhaps be inspired to eat their vegetables. Pair this amusing picture book with Kelly Bingham's Z Is for Moose (Greenwillow 2012).-Linda L. Walkins, Saint Joseph Preparatory High School, Boston, MA (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
An abecedary follow-up to Schoonmaker's debut, Square Cat (2011). The titular square cat, Eula, wearing a floppy green-and-yellow hat, is busy with shovel and seeds when a portly blue-and-pink mouse happens along. Quizzed about her actions, Eula discloses that she's "Gardening" but that she doesn't care for Mouse's favorite, spinach. The sudden appearance of a porcupine (heralded by the words "Kerplunk" and "Kaboom" to fulfill the need for words beginning with K) startles the mouse but doesn't faze the cat. Mouse's fears are allayed by Eula's calm explanation that the prickly animal is her friend and the discovery that the porcupine also likes spinach. Convinced to sample it, Eula still finds the leafy green stuff "Yucky" ("eXtremely" so, in fact), leading Mouse to suggest that she try a "Zucchini, perhaps?" Created in watercolor, gouache, watercolor pencils and ink, the pictures are pleasingly childlike and stand out well against the abundant white space. Unfortunately, they appear static and flat when paired with the staccato text. Letters are emphasized with red print, but varying between upper- and lowercase letters may create confusion, as will a few unusual flourishes in the typeface selected. Not as "Ick"y as the spinach is in Eula's estimation but far from Mouse's opening observation of "Amazing!" (Picture book. 4-7) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
