Honey for a Child's Heart

I once bought a poster in Williamsburg, Virgina of a small boy contorting his body to shape the letters of the alphabet. I have it now on a tea towel and on a hotpad. It’s a wonderful look at the basic forms of the ABCs. But it is fun only AFTER a child has learned the alphabet. 

Clever illustrators have exploited the alphabet in all sorts of original ways. Alphabet books are no longer aimed just at beginner readers. They might present puzzles and challenges even for older children, and some are coffee-table books for adults. Stephen T. Johnson’s Alphabet City helps the reader find the letters in city scenes. Max Grover uses vegetables in his The Accidental Zucchini. In Aardvarks Embark (Ann Jonas) the story line is about Noah who calls out to each animal to disembark, from aardvarks to zebras. At the end many animals remain aboard, so Noah calls out, “Disembark, everyone!” and the rest of the animals exit, lined up in reverse order of the alphabet. It’s a charmer for a child who already knows the alphabet. Chris Demarest’s books are aimed at boys—Alpha Bravo Charlie: The Military Alphabet, and Firefighters A to Z. There’s more—hundreds more. 

Nonetheless, when YOU go to purchase an alphabet book, remember who you want to use it. Simpler is better for a two year old child! What you want to teach is letter recognition, not admiration of the author’s creativity. Of course, it must still be creative and fun, but a simpler kind of creativity. There is nothing wrong with A is for apple. An illustrator can achieve a lot of charm with known objects. Once a child has the basics, move up to the next level of complexity in recognition. 

Some authors cheat on the hard letters - the ones that Scrabble players groan over – Q, X and Z. Reading demands that we love them all, and put them in the right order. 

Learning to Count books require less care in choosing. You can start the counting routine in books like The Very Hungry Catepillar (Carle) or Have you Seen my Duckling? (Tafari).  I love Anita Lobel’s Hello, Day for this and many other reasons: ”The Cow said, ‘Moo.’ The Sheep said ‘Baa,” but what they all mean to say was “Hello, Day.” You can count all sorts of things in her sumptuous scenes. However, recognizing what numbers look like is an issue of the same importance as identifying letters of the alphabet. You have to have both!