E-mergency!

( 4 )

Overview

It's an E-mergency! The letter E took a tumble and the only way to get her back on her foot is for people to stop using her. But who can take her place? The other letters have to make a decision ASAP. Z is too sleepy and Y asks way too many questions. Thankfully, O rolls in to try and save the day. Now E can rost up and got bottor . . . as long as ovorybody follows the rulos. Chock-full of verbal and visual puns, this zany book is sure to tickle both the brain and the funny ...
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More About This Book

Overview

It's an E-mergency! The letter E took a tumble and the only way to get her back on her foot is for people to stop using her. But who can take her place? The other letters have to make a decision ASAP. Z is too sleepy and Y asks way too many questions. Thankfully, O rolls in to try and save the day. Now E can rost up and got bottor . . . as long as ovorybody follows the rulos. Chock-full of verbal and visual puns, this zany book is sure to tickle both the brain and the funny bone.
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Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly
Picture books often get by on a single comic device, but Lichtenheld (Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site) and his collaborator, 15-year-old Fields-Meyer, pack their alphabet book with jokes—it’s like Chicka Chicka Boom Boom on steroids. Imagine what would happen if the letter E broke its leg and O had to be tapped for substitute duty (“Big Troo Falls On Toony Car!” reads a newspaper headline). The co-authors invent dozens of puns, hiding them in the corners of pages (P is the source of potty jokes, Z is forever tired) and assembling acronyms (“The EMTs rushed in with an IV, ready to perform CPR”). The letters often assemble words on the spot (after E falls, some chums spell “OUCH!”) and, in a grand finale of self-reference, they insist that the narrator play by the book’s rules and quit using the letter E (“That’s bottor!” says N, mollified). Though some of the jokes will be clear only to older brothers and sisters, readers who are in the thick of learning spelling rules will pore over the pages. Comprehensive, witty entertainment from A to Z. Ages 4–8. (Nov.)
From the Publisher
"Witty entertainment from A to Z." - Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Zany" - Kirkus Reviews

School Library Journal
K-Gr 2—All the letters of the alphabet live together in one big, happy house. One morning as they race down the stairs to breakfast, E goes too fast and falls, injuring one of her appendages. After the EMTs arrive, bringing TLC and carrying an IV, E is admitted to the hospital. To properly recover she can't be used, so O is picked to fill in on her behalf. Despite news reports, congressional hearings, reader boards, a spot on Oprah, and a world tour to spread the news to use O instead of E, the injured letter is still not getting better. In a surprise worthy of Jon Stone's The Monster at the End of This Book (Western Publishing, 1971), the letters suddenly turn on the narrator and demand that he stop using E as he is why she's not getting better. After a page of tricky-to-read prose, E is healed and ready to go back to work just in time for thE End. The text tells only part of the story. The detailed cartoons of the letters in action with a plethora of speech balloons take the story to a whole other level of humor. This artwork takes a funny story and makes it hilarious to the right readers/listeners, of which there will be many. Kids and adults will get more of the sly humor each time they read this book. Warning: It's not easy to read all those words with the E replaced by an O.—Catherine Callegari, Gay-Kimball Library, Troy, NH
Kirkus Reviews
Help! The letter E has fallen (down the stairs) and can't get up! Get ready to chortle over this zany alphabet book, which poses as a mystery with the letters as the cast of characters, aided by some exclamation points. When E takes a tumble in the alphabet's crowded communal quarters, all the others are concerned. A takes action, as always, calling the ambulance and assembling the alphabet to determine who will take E's place. "O, you're the obvious option because you're so well-rounded." An announcement is made on television not to "uso! E! until! sho! rocovors!" D and C go to Washington to alert the "govornmont," while the other letters talk it up on talk shows. Then A decides to take a road trip to spread the word: "Pack your bags, lottors. It's timo for a journoy!" When E just doesn't get better, the search is on for the culprit who's broken the letter law. The comic illustrations and the comments from the letters totally exaggerate the cleverness and fun while amusingly emphasizing the importance of the letter E in our language. Lichtenheld's co-author developed the basic concept in a video, Alphabet House, and it is a rich one. Definitely not a beginner's ABC book, but the visual and print punnery will have elementary kids (and adults) guessing and laughing. (Alphabet picture book. 7-10)
Ben Zimmer
Every page is chock-full of inventive letter-play, sometimes winking more to parent than child…But the book quickly became a favorite of my alphabetically obsessed 5-year-old…
—The New York Times Book Review
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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780811878982
  • Publisher: Chronicle Books LLC
  • Publication date: 10/19/2011
  • Pages: 40
  • Sales rank: 67953
  • Age range: 5 - 8 Years
  • Product dimensions: 9.10 (w) x 11.10 (h) x 0.10 (d)

Meet the Author

TOM LICHTENHELD loves drawing pictures and telling silly stories. His books include the New York Times best sellers Duck! Rabbit!, Shark Vs. Train, and Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site. He lives in Geneva, Illinois.

Ezra Fields-Meyer is a high school student and an expert on animated movies and animals. He is the creator of the animated short Alphabet House, which inspired this book, and is the subject of the memoir Following Ezra (by his father, Tom Fields-Meyer). He and his family live in Los Angeles, California.

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Customer Reviews

Average Rating 4.5
( 4 )
Rating Distribution

5 Star

(2)

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  • Anonymous

    Posted Fri Nov 18 00:00:00 EST 2011

    A fun read

    This is a really fun story (with great illustrations) about what the alphabet would be like without the letter E. It's probably best to get this for a child who can already read, so they can more fully grasp it.

    2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted Sun Apr 15 00:00:00 EDT 2012

    recommended for letter lovers

    My two and four grandsons ask for this often, especially the four year old. The humor is often over their heads, especially the acronyms, but the four year old insist I read every caption and want me to explain what I can.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted Mon Apr 30 00:00:00 EDT 2012

    Highly Recommended for Kids

    This book is fun to read. The interactive function added to the fun and my kids love this book!

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  • Anonymous

    Posted Fri Mar 23 00:00:00 EDT 2012

    No text was provided for this review.

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