ABC Book

by C.B. Falls

ABC Book takes children through their first lessons in letters with animals as familiar as a mouse... as fantastic as a unicorn... and as peculiar as a xiphius. C. B. Falls's beautiful woodcuts -- one for each letter of the alphabet -- bring every animal and letter to vivid life and are certain to capture the attention of a budding imagination.

Genres: Picture Books

40 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1923

Reviews

[Jean Bowen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Classic ABC book. My three year old loves it. My favorite page is M is for Mouse, her favorite is U is for Unicorn. We both stumbled with X is for Xiphius, but all the woodcuts are beautiful, and we don't mind rereading it three times in a row.

[Sarah Sammis · Rating 5 out of 5]

ABC Book by CB Falls was published in 1923. It is twenty-six woodcut prints. Unlike modern day ABC books that often have a story with the illustrations, or a central theme, there isn't one here. I suppose these are just words the author / illustrator thought children of the 1920s should know.

The illustrations cover the mundane to the exotic. There is a yak, a jaguar, and a unicorn as well as more common things like a turkey, a horse, and a bear. My all time favorite, though, is C is for cat, featuring a gorgeously rendered calico before a bowl of milk. She has similar spots to my own calico.

The artist behind this gorgeous book is Charles Buckles Falls (1874-1960). According to the National Heritage Museum site Falls worked in all sorts of media and industries including posters, book binding, advertising, and furniture.

The book I read was a gorgeous first edition that belongs to the K-12 collection at Holy Names University. It was one of the hundreds of books I cataloged for my fall internship.

[Debbie Jo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am lucky to have a 1923 library bound edition of this gorgeous ABC book. So happy that I saved it from a "weeding" of a school library. The woodcuts are bold and brilliant - with an animal for each letter. At some point someone wrote a number to go with each letter on the first end page & also hand numbered the pages of the book. Good to see that this has been reissued and is still available for readers. Not sure which illustration is my favorite - U is for Unicorn, X is for Xiphius...

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

The woodcuts are really clear and nice. Another good ABC book. Since the pictures are so graphic, it would work with very young children, I think. I love it's clear-cut (sorry for the pun) images which make it seem very modern despite the fact that it was published in the 1920s!

[Melina Kinder · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, I love the art by C.B. Falls! It's such a great book because the drawings are so simple but they are also eye-catching. My two-year old loved the book and she liked to look at the pictures and repeat all the letters and animals.

[Siskiyou-Suzy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have an edition of this book published 1939 -- I think it's library binding. It's also really beautiful! These woodcuts are so bold and gorgeous. I'm not huge on alphabet books in terms of education, but there's something really sweet about them anyway.

[Amanda Schwind · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alphabet

Published in 1923
Simple but great pictures
All animals, and X is not an abbreviation or x-Ray!