A Book Of Letters

by Ken Wilson-Max, Manya Stojic (Illustrations)

Ken Wilson-Max teamed up with his wife, illustrator Manya Stojic, to create this unique and imaginative interactive alphabet book with fun lift-up-flap envelopes and a large pull-out alphabet poster.

A BOOK OF LETTERS offers young readers a new approach to learning the alphabet. When Abigail Anderson receives an "A" in a letter from a friend, she adds a "B" and passes the letter to Bunny Bernstein. Bunny sends a "C" to Christopher Clark, and so begins the alphabet chain letter! As the story progresses, the letter is passed from one child to another, whose names all correspond to the next letter of the alphabet. The large 10x10 format allows for big, bold illustrations and the lift-up-flaps enable small fingers to "open" the "envelopes" inside, creating an interactive element that parents and children will enjoy. The last spread contains a real envelope with a large fold-out alphabet poster inside for kids to hang up and refer to whenever they need help remembering their ABCs!

Genres: Picture Books

32 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2002

About the author

Ken Wilson-Max was born in 1965 and raised in Zimbabwe and studied design in the U.K. He is the author-illustrator of many children’s books. He says that he has always believed that people are more similar than different, and that that is worth celebrating. Ken Wilson-Max lives in London.

Reviews

[Nabia CHIKER · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whilst on BSE, I rarely ever got a chance to go down to the younger year groups and have a look at their reading corners. However, during one of my observations, I noticed, two pupils, giggling away as they flicked through the pages of this book. Very quickly I became intrigued and went over to see what the book was about. At first glance, the front cover led me to think that the book was going to be about "letters" that were posted by different children around the world. It was only after opening the book that I realised the author's play on words. The book, in fact, goes through the alphabet, and with each letter, a new character whose name begins with that letter is introduced, they then write a letter and send it to the next character, whose name then begins with the next letter in the alphabet. The letters written, carry the same rhyming pattern throughout the book, allowing children to interact and join in with the reading. This book is a great resource to practice the alphabet order with children in a different way than the usual alphabet song. Teachers could also use this book as a form of assessment: teachers could ask the children to think of possible names for the next character- here children would have to recognise and understand that the next name, must begin with the next letter in the alphabet.

[Courtney Heard · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fun book that you could use in elementary classrooms to get your students familiar with the alphabet and can translate into an activity.

Six + 1Trait: word choice
DRA Level: ~8
Lexile: AD180L

[Tom Diamond · Rating 4 out of 5]

Use as a read-aloud for preK-1st grade, connects letters of the alphabet to their sounds. Excellent for emerging readers to hear.