Chicka Chicka ABC

by Bill Martin Jr., John Archambault, Lois Ehlert (Illustrator)

Race to the top of the coconut tree with this delightful alphabet rhyme from the creators of Chicka Chicka Boom Boom .

A told B,
and B told C,
"I'll meet you at the top of the coconut tree."

So begins the lively alphabet rhyme that children and their parents love to recite. Martin and Archambault's rhythmic chant and Caldecott Honor artist Lois Ehlert's bold, cheerful art make this rollicking story an ideal companion to Chicka Chicka Boom Boom .

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Poetry, Storytime, Juvenile, Fiction, Classics

14 pages, Board Book

First published September 1, 1993

About the author

Bill Martin, Jr. (1916-2004) was an elementary-school principal, teacher, writer, and poet. His more than 300 books, among them the bestselling classics Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See ; Polar Bear Polar Bear What Do You Hear ; Panda Bear Panda Bear What Do You See ; and Chicka Chicka Boom Boom , are a testament to his ability to speak directly to children. Martin held a doctoral degree in early childhood education. Born in Kansas, he worked as an elementary-school principal in Chicago before moving to New York City, where he worked in publishing, developing innovative reading programs for schools. After several years, he devoted himself full-time to writing his children's books. He lived in New York until 1993, when he moved to Texas. He lived in the east Texas woods, near the town of Commerce, until he passed away in 2004.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/billma...

Reviews

[ash · Rating 5 out of 5]

nostalgia

[ava · Rating 5 out of 5]

BEST BOOK IN THE WORLD ❤️🌴🥥🔤

[J-Lynn Van Pelt · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun board book for young pre-readers that uses the pictures and the refrain from the popular Chicka Chicka Boom Boom book by Archambault to play with the letters of the alphabet. Kids will like the rhythm and rhyme. Parents can point to the letters as they read and ask children to "pick out the J" or "point to the M" to practice letter recognition.

[Kate Reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sitting down to write this review the words of this lyrical poem of a book pop immediately into my head. This one was on the stack of books I would read to my children nightly. It is colorful, creative and incorporates the letters of the alphabet into a wonderful story poem. It still evokes memories of happiness for me reading to my little ones.

[Tara Leitz · Rating 5 out of 5]

5/5⭐️ Simple alphabet book. Colorful for babies, simple enough to teach abc’s to toddlers.

A classic.

[Kenzie Valencia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nice!!!

[Hope · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is such a fun way to teach young children about the alphabet! They will love it and want to read it over and over. I like to let the children recognize each letter and try to "read" the story to me! :)

[寿理 宮本 · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't know if this one is as successful as Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, which itself is only sort of. This version is barely more than reciting the alphabet as the letters run up a tree. It doesn't even rhyme at the end! Just a "...down they go!" would have perfectly fit after, "The whole alphabet up the — Oh, no! Chicka chicka... BOOM! BOOM!"

Quality-wise, it's about what you might expect from a board book. Sadly, some young reader has demonstrated that even a board book cannot withstand a ballpoint pen. (What would? A... METAL book?) I have also found a large number of board books sans spine, which has me rather curious as to just what these very young readers are doing with their books... and why said books are getting "charitably" donated to free libraries.

[Mia Mihalic · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remember reading this book as a child in school, and absolutely loved it. I still love it now because the author, Bill Martin, used rhyming to connect each letter in the alphabet. It makes it easier for children to remember the alphabet when rhyming is involved because they can connect each letter to each other in that specific order. I loved how there was not a serious story line to this book and it was more light hearted. This book is perfect for kindergarten and even pre-K when they are still learning to read, and learning the alphabet. The illustrations are so important to this book because even though they are very simple it helps the child focus more on the words and letters being taught in this story.

[Andrés · Rating 3 out of 5]

I guess this is sufficient as a stand-alone within a series of books the same length. Although, I think it's verbatim the first part of Chicka Chicka Boom Boom . So why would I read half a book when I could read the whole book? This is an innovative way to teach and spot letters, so I recommend as much as you can get your hands on.

[She Rylou · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like this book a lot my 5-year-old enjoy reading it and until now that she is 6 still like to read this book. She always enjoys seeing how the alphabet goes down and up the tree. I also read it to my 3 years old, maybe this book will be her favorite also same as her sister.

[Sean Harding · Rating 3 out of 5]

At some point every series for younger readers feels the need to do an ABC book.
Why?
Maybe they are bereft of ideas and this is a way to get another book on the market.
(They also do colours, shapes and numbers)
Anyway this one is slightly more imaginative than some of the others.

[Barbara Posey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a great book for children learning the language. It has predictability, rhythm, the alphabet, and simple graphics. Lois Elhert is such a great illustrator for picture books. Bill Martin Jr. is a great author of young children's books too!
-Teacher Approved 👌🏼

[Ayden Moore · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is another book I read but I read this one with my little niece she is one and she loved it.

[Alexis Norman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book and I always have. It’s such a fun way to teach kids about the alphabet!

[Toni · Rating 5 out of 5]

T

[Ashley]

This is the abbreviated version of Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. My kids were confused on where the rest of the book went.

[Alizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite kid's book. My niece loves it.

[Stacy Atherton Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish this was longer, but it's still really fun to read (and you can just read it several times in a row).

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book to my granddaughters and we all had fun. Catchy lyrics. Awesome way for children to learn their letters.

[John Boyack · Rating 5 out of 5]

She remembered it, three years later.

[Savannah Linn · Rating 1 out of 5]

Worst children’s book I’ve ever seen. Concept is idiotic. What the heck is chicka chicka boom boom.

[Jasmin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simple, colourful, fun.

[Sophia Sowle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun and engaging books about the alphabet having fun climbing a tree until they fall down. This is a great book to use with students working on alphabet or letter sounds.

[Robert DiRe · Rating 2 out of 5]

Straight-to-video-quality sequel to Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, which didn’t exactly leave us wanting more to begin with.

[Brittany Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is about the alphabet, with the letters going up the coconut tree, it is a rhyme book that beautiful bright colors. I enjoyed reading this book to my son.

[Eve Victor · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book when i was younger. My mother, being a teacher, has found numerous ways in the past to teach ma and my siblings different ways to learn the alphabet. This book has added to that list in a very special way. This book both taught me the abcs in a fundamental way, but I was also very interested in the book. The colors are so beautiful and bright, I remember putting my fingers to the cardboard pages as i shifted from page to page. The writing is also very playful. The story is about letters trying to climb up a coconut tree and how through many struggles, they push to try and get up to the top. The story also rhymes, which adds to the fun of the book. I think this book can be read to very simple readers and can be enjoyed by a number of ages. Children can probably read this story on their own if they are in elementary school. However if it is early elementary, teachers might use it as a lesson plan to teach the alphabet. With fun noises and cute pictures students will love this book very much, even today at age 19 I love this book and would absolutely show it to a number of children for enjoyment.

[Jennifer Olson]

This board book is the first part of the popular book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by the same authors. It uses a catchy chanting rhyme and bright colored basic illustrations to present lower case letters in alphabetical order. It would be best used as a read aloud for pre-reading students.

According to Ogle and Beers (2012, p. 208) student knowledge of letters of the alphabet is one of the best predictors of early reading success. This book could be part of many strategies to teach letters including watching a video of the chant form the book and practicing the chant, putting the letters in order using an alphabet strip, practicing identifying letter names and sounds with flash cards modeled after the book, or using magnetic letters to model the action in the story while saying the letter names. Rhyming is also important to early phonemic awareness (Ogle and Beers, 2012, p.212). Students could be asked, if a pair of words rhyme, then to identify which words rhyme in selected lines of the chant and to list others that rhyme with those words.

Ogle, D., & Beers, J. W. (2012). Engaging in the language arts: Exploring the power of language,(2nd ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.

[Megan Compton · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a classic. I remember reading it when I was a child, but I hadn't even thought about "Chicka Chicka" in a very long time. When I came across it in my search this week, I knew I needed to refresh my memory. I love this title now as much as I did then! My family owned a paperback copy, and it was very worn due to the multiple times it was read to my brother and I. The version I read this week, however, was a hardback copy.

Regardless, this title is so comical, attention grabbing and really allows the reader to explore the world of the alphabet. Bill Martin Jr. is a very talented author and created a book that has stayed in print for about 15 years. However, the illustrations are a bit dated compared to other titles I have read recently. I did not enjoy them as much as the other titles I read this week.

This book is a staple in nearly every kindergarten classroom. I would even use this in an early childhood (preschool) classroom if I felt it was necessary. It could also be used in other primary grades as a Read-Aloud book if student's requested to read it. It does not exactly pertain to their instruction, however.

[Woods · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambualt. Chicka Chicka abc. (2012)
Intended for children approximately 1-5 years old, this alphabet book uses very simple pictures and rhyming text to simply teach the abc’s. The alphabet is chunked into one to four letters at a time through the rhyming text. The book cleverly teaches both upper and lower-case letters by using the upper case letters in the text, but uses the lower case letters always as part of the illustration on the page. The illustrations on the page are simple, the colors few and bold, and the letters are, roughly, doing what is described in the text (climbing a tree for example). As the letters try to climb a coconut tree, this book is at once exciting (“’Whee!’ said D to E F G, ‘I’ll beat you to the top of the coconut tree.’”), worrisome (“Chicka chicka boom boom! Will there be enough room? Look who’s coming! L M N O P!”), and tragic (“Chick chicka . . . BOOM! BOOM!” as the tree collapses under the weight of so many letters). A truly thrilling read for any 3 year old. I highly recommend this book to your beginning preschooler.