Turn-Around, Upside-Down Alphabet Book

by Lisa Campbell Ernst

Overview

At every turn these letters are full of surprises. Imagine! What other things can you discover hiding in the alphabet?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780689856853
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers
Publication date:	07/01/2004
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	9.50(w) x 9.50(h) x 0.40(d)
Lexile:	AD840L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Lisa Campbell Ernst has written and illustrated many popular children's books, including The Turn-Around, Upside-Down Alphabet Book; Hannah Mae O'Hannigan's Wild West Show; Goldilocks Returns, her own version of "Little Red Riding Hood"; and Stella Louella's Runaway Book. She lives in Kansas City, Missouri, with her husband, Lee, and their two daughters, Elizabeth and Allison.

Editorial Reviews

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)

Kirkus Reviews