ABC

by Bruno Munari

An alphabet book by this graphic designer.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Art, Classics, 20th Century

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1960

About the author

Bruno Munari was an Italian artist and designer, who contributed fundamentals in many fields of visual arts (paint, sculpture, film, industrial design, graphics) and non visual arts (literature, poetry, didactic) with the research on the game subject, infancy and creativity.

Reviews

[Cristina Di Matteo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bruno Munari’s ABC Semplice lezione di inglese è un bellissimo alfabetiere illustrato per bambini, scritto e disegnato da Bruno Munari nel 1960, con la consueta colorata ironia.

Destinato originariamente agli Stati Uniti, il testo diventa una semplice e divertente lezione d’inglese per grandi e bambini grazie alle mille illustrazioni abbinate ad ogni singola parola e lettera dell’alfabeto.
https://ilmondodichri.com/bruno-munar...

[Sonaksha · Rating 3 out of 5]

As I was reading Bruno Munari’s Abc, I kept wishing that I had it as a child. Munari’s brilliant use of colours, rhymes, pictures, sounds keep the focus on learning the alphabet but have beautiful illustrations to guide you along from page to page adding to the experience. From the fly flying across pages to the vertical violet violin, his use of design is lovely (and very inspiring, of course)!

[Manik Sukoco · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bruno Munari's ABC is beautiful to look at and interesting to read. Your first image in this book is of a luscious orange/red apple sitting in a white space. On its stem crawls a realistically rendered black ant with the only words on the page, "an Ant on an Apple". Then you turn the page to a full double spread of a brilliant Blue Butterfly. It's a deep royal blue, but of a shade that brings to mind deep pockets of the ocean and long shadows late in the day. Munari uses watercolors to their fullest in this book. A careful reading through each page displays objects on white with simple words and recognizable objects. To my mind, the only object here that struck me as a little out of date was the rendering of an old rotary-dial telephone. And in any case I sincerely doubt that your kids will find it unrecognizable.
It's the range of colors in this book that really let it stand out though. Whether you're viewing a purple violin, the pink flesh of a watermelon, the brown of an owl, or the green of a leaf, the book is a visual cacophony of shades and images. There's something about Munari's sparse style that continues to appeal, even to this day. If you want alphabet books that blow you away with their wit and wonder, they exist I assure you. There are probably tons of them out there that seek to impress far more than this creation. But if you want something classic and classy that teaches the alphabet without distracting or obliterating its original message (which is to say, teaching the alphabet in the first place) then "Bruno Munari's ABC" should be a first choice.

[James · Rating 2 out of 5]

Started out really cute, but then it got a little weird. First of all, many of the word choices were not the best. The worst page in this regard was K because it had only one word with a K sound. The other words were silent K's like "Knife." Not really helpful for little kids learning their alphabet. S also had "sh" words, which again was not the best to learn the S sound.
I was also a little annoyed that he seemed to think putting a fly on 1/4 of the pages was somehow funny.

[Cristina Di Matteo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bruno Munari’s ABC Semplice lezione di inglese è un bellissimo alfabetiere illustrato per bambini, scritto e disegnato da Bruno Munari nel 1960, con la consueta colorata ironia. Destinato originariamente agli Stati Uniti, il testo diventa una semplice e divertente lezione d’inglese per grandi e bambini grazie alle mille illustrazioni abbinate ad ogni singola parola e lettera dell’alfabeto. https://ilmondodichri.com/bruno-munar...

[Ian Yang · Rating 4 out of 5]

Colorful, simple and intuitive. Even though I find that "Glasses in the Green Grass" is hilarious and Ice Cream for I and Juggler for J seem a bit too negligent of the author, nevertheless, it's quite satisfactory to hear my cousin pronounce "An Ant on an Apple" correctly.

[Heidi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Something about the simplicity of this book moves me each time I read it. I also love how the dedication is "to the child who owns this book" with a line for their name.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this imaginative and whimsical ABC book. The beautifully shaded illustrations are bold on a white background, and there is a fly to look out for! I liked the playful rhyming also.

[zunggg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absolutely beautiful English / Italian ABC for kids. Quirky and creative; bravo!

Additional review by user nitaafonso, pieced together from tags:

"In this imaginative ABC, Bruno Munari shows how fun letters can be. From an Ant on an Apple to a Blue Butterfly to a Cat in a Cage, Munari pairs words in whimsical ways until Fly frees itself from its page, lands on the Hat, buzzes near the Ice Cream and provides the final sound for Zzzzz."

[Dana Storytime Account · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the images in this book and that many of the letters had more unique words instead of the basic ones we always see, and I especially liked the fly who kept making appearances in other letters.

[Aiden · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great design and fun illustrations of whimsical words. For example, for G: "Glasses in green grass and a gift for you" and N: "No bird in the Nest, Nuts on a Nail". There's also a newspaper in the branch of the tree, how silly and original

[Sally · Rating 4 out of 5]

Glad this book is still on library shelves.
It would be a fun prompt for a writing project.

I found this artist/designer listed in "Hervé Tullet's art of play : images and inspirations from a life of radical creativity" and had to borrow some of Munari's books.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

An alphabet book with alliteration and color. And flies.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clean pictures, simple abc.

[Gabriel Infierno · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't understand how somebody can make a simple ABC book into something so magical that you don't know what it's going to happen in the next page, admiration at its most for this artist.

[Diane Madlon-Kay · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars

[Ravi Narayanan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A different type of Alphabet book. More words introduced in an interesting way. I like to make one like this for introducing my language Tamil.

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved the colors and how bright this ABC book was. Kids had fun looking at it and identifying the pictures.

[Seven · Rating 3 out of 5]

S: a Sack of Stars and Snow for Santa Claus

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Collin Powell]

This non-fiction book dedicates each page to a different letter and each letter has multiple items shown which start with that letter. This allows the young reader to hear the sound of each letter in commonly used words which enhances their phonetic understanding. There was a lot of variability in the illustrations as some of them were very simple and others were much more elaborate and beautiful.
I liked the book and could see that this would be something useful for me to use in my reading classes once I start working as a teacher. I think the pictures make the alphabet much easier to remember, allowing the student to recall immediately the sound of the letter in the words used in the book.

[Rosanna · Rating 2 out of 5]

Probably should have read this one to Z a few years ago. He has pretty low expectations for his bedtime story, but he does have expectations, nonetheless. He wants a coherent storyline, and something entertaining. F. Feather. Fly. Didn't do it for him. He kept asking me to stop and read Strega Nona again. This one is headed back to the library fast!

[Taylor Washington · Rating 3 out of 5]

Summary: This book goes through the letter of the alphabet with things that start with a certain letter. When it gets to the letter F and little fly goes through the remaining letters and finds himself Zzz'n for the letter Z.

Activity: Students will pick a letter and have to cutout the letter and things that start with that letter from a magazine and glue onto a piece of paper.

[Drew Graham · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bruno Munari presents his own unique take on the ABCs.

This alphabet book didn't really do much for me. It has a graphic style to the illustrations, much I didn't find them that memorable, and there's some nice sort of rhythm to the text, though it didn't really stick with me. Overall it's kind of a wash, which sometimes happens when you take a chance judging a library shelf book by its cover.

[Samantha · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book shows the alphabet with some pictures from A-Z. The illustrations give a good depiction of association the letters with actual objects. It's now a little outdated, but would still be a good book for a little one learning the alphabet.

[Reenie Peppers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Themes: the alphabet, bold graphic illustrations
Activities: have students identify the objects for each letter, predict which page the fly will appear on, draw an additional object for a particular letter

[Noemi Mandujano · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun illustrations, clean design. The words used to illustrate the words are not always phonetic, for example under "K" you get "knife." And there are some random alliterations like "a sack full of snow and stars for santa claus."

[Drew Canole · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, it lived up to the title atleast. Not a very enthralling subject for a man in his 20s. I think its a bit derivative as well... I won't accuse him of plagiarism though.

Obviously, I'm here for the art and it doesn't disappoint in that regard. Munari is a master of design.

[Kerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really love the bold, clear illustrations in this alphabet book, all printed on a plain, white background. The letter are clearly printed and work well with the illustrations and quirky text.

[Brandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

-pre-k-kindergarten
-letter-sound association
-students can find their own words to match the letters in the alphabet