The Turn-Around, Upside-Down Alphabet Book

by Lisa Campbell Ernst

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

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Art

32 pages, Hardcover

First published June 22, 2004

About the author

Lisa Campbell Ernst was born in Bartlesville, Oklahoma in 1957. She received a Bachelor's degree in art from the University of Oklahoma, and then won an internship as a guest editor for Mademoiselle Magazine in New York City. She has written and illustrated over twenty picture books including Stella Louella's Runaway Book, which won the Children's Choice Award in Kansas, and Sam Johnson and the Blue Ribbon Quilt.

Reviews

[Shawn Deal · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very cute little book you have to read and spin around to read. A very nice ABC book.

[Samantha Powley · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Turn-Around, Upside-Down Alphabet Book is written by Lisa Campbell Ernst. This book helps to teach letters to young students or even ELL students. Each page contains a letter in the alphabet, first starting with A and ending at the end of the book with Z. As you look at each letter, there are 4 sentences on each page of what the letter could be. By looking at the letter from different views, like turning the book left or right or upside down, the letter makes a different picture that is explained below each view. For example the letter J makes an elephant trunk when turned left and a candy cane when it is upside down.
This book is a great book for young students in pre-kindergarten to about 1st or 2nd grade. The book could also help students that are ELL’s. The book can help students to learn their letters and use their imaginations when looking at the letters from different angles. As a teacher, I would read this book aloud and do an activity to follow. Depending on the grade level, I would have the students use the letters of their own name and describe what they saw in each of the letters. I would have the students write each of the letters of their name on separate pieces of paper and after they wrote the four descriptions of each letter, the students would make their letter papers into their own book of their name. I would highly encourage any teacher to use this book when teaching young children because it can help to spark their imagination.

[Brandi Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

This picturebook is on the ALA Notable Children's Book List for Younger Readers. It was written for children ages birth to 5(N). This book encourages children to examine the alphabet in a new way. It is very engaging. The vibrant computer generated images display letters of the alphabet from one angle, then as you rotate the book other images become more visible. It is sort of an optical illusion. I admire the amount of effort and ingenuity that it must have taken to create these images. My only concern is that a prereader, someone who may not yet understand that books are read from left to right and from top to bottom, may be mislead by the way that the text appears on the pages. I would feel more comfortable using this book with a child who is already familiar with the letters of the alphabet.
I gave this book 3 stars. It is available in print.

[Emily Roberts · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Turn-Around Upside-Down Alphabet Book by Lisa Campbell Ernst is a cute book for young children learning their ABCs. It was on the Education Library display. Each letter of the alphabet is given three characteristics for the way it looks when you turn the book that way. For example, for the letter A, the bottom of the page says "A becomes," then you turn the book clockwise and that side says "a bird's beak," then turn it again and it says "a drippy ice cream cone," and finally the last side says "a point of a wishing star." It is a cute book that would keep children in preschool and kindergarten entertained as you are turning the book. I would even have children provide their own ideas for what the letters look like when turned in different ways. I wish it had illustrations, but I understand that as you're turning the book it would get jumbled.

[Sierra · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is brilliant. I love it! It teaches children to match up objects they already know with the shapes of the letter, so that they can remember it. What a cool idea. The examples are plentiful, and unique. One weakness is that there are a few large words that would be difficult for a small child just learning their ABC's to even recognize, such as "masquerades." Strengths of this book include the cool ideas that each letter represents, which allows for many activities and projects for a teacher to stem off of to go along with the book. Also, turning the book on its sides to read all the words is fun for the kids to actively engage in the story.

[Heidi-Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Figured we should bring in more ABC books to be helping SS work on, plus SD enjoys more since she has her letters mastered. Never heard of this one and thought it would be interesting. SS lost complete interest. SD and I were fascinated and had a fun time seeing it all. A couple of things neither of us could see it all, but the rest was very enjoyable for us. Hubby I think enjoyed what he could see but he was holding V so I'm not sure.

If there was a lot of time, this could be very interesting in a preschool storytime, or a younger school age. Maybe older as well. But definitely best enjoyed as a read-alone or lap-read.

[Joshua · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Turn-Around, Upside-Down Alphabet Book is written by Lisa Campbell Ernst. It does a great job helping young students, pre-kindergarten to first grade, learn the alphabet. It has all the letters and has an interactive component to help keep the students interested. As you rotate the book around the letter becomes different things. Using the letter H as an example it becomes robot eyes, a train track, and waffle squares. The descriptions appear below the image in the book as it is rotated. This book can be used to help ignite the students creativity by having them come up with their own answers to what the letter looks like from different angles.

[Shealee Crosby · Rating 4 out of 5]

This ABC book is like no other. You have to physically turn it all the way around to read it to the students. It is interactive as well as good for using imagination. It uses a lot of day to day things that younger students can relate to very well. There are many activities you could use for this book. For instance, making your own and having the students come up with their own ways they see the letters.

[Dana · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a clever book and idea. It’s a game tucked inside an ABC picture book. This concept book takes simplistic illustrations of capital letters and turn them on their heads - literally - and each side. I love this book for teaching perspective, capital letters and the joy of reading a picture book at all ages.

[Jo Oehrlein · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun creativity exercise.

Each page is the same letter of the alphabet printed 4 times, each time rotated 90 degrees. They're block capitals, inside squares that are just the size of the letters. Sometimes what is "seen" in each letter is the negative space and sometimes it's the positive space. Lots of fun. It does require stopping and turning each letter, though.

[Alisha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun and imaginative take on teaching kids the alphabet. I love interactive books where a child can play and imagine with books. I think this one would also be fun where you ask the child what it sees as opposed to reading what the author imagines.

[Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun book for alphabet. Pulled for K-5 but could be used for preschool alphabet program or for those who like puzzle books since everytime you turn picture you see a different view. Ex candy cane, elephant trunk, monkey tail.

[Shanice Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. I liked the way that I could look at the letters in different angles to see different things. There were a few things that I just couldn't make out. I still enjoyed the book.

[Gabrielle Stoller · Rating 3 out of 5]

Doing every single letter of the alphabet would be too much--but highlighting a few letters or two (and showing all of the things they can be) is amazing!!

What a great way to practice early literacy skills with pre-readers!!

[Elizabeth Chang · Rating 3 out of 5]

WOW, actually super clever! I'll never look at letters the same way again!

[Caren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun

[Robin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lotsa fun to look at with a group of kids!

[Patrice]

BookTree
Sabine liked

[Michelle Farella · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very creative ways of looking at the alphabet!

[Shannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a great concept that could help kids remember some of the shapes of the alphabet. Some of the images were hard for me to see, and some seemed like a bit of a stretch (the things chosen for G in particular), but overall I think this would be a fun book for kids. They should have a great time turning the book around and seeing what the letters look like.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Title: The Turn-Around, Upside-Down Alphabet Book
Author: Lisa Campbell Ernest
Genre: Concept Book, Alphabet Book
Theme(s): Alphabet, different objects, sense of direction
Opening line/sentence:
This books is a picture book and starts off by showing the letter “a”
Brief Book Summary:
Letters are shown and when they are rotated left or right they show more than one pictures that is in the shape of the letter. For an example “o” shows an eye, a bagel and a fried egg.

Professional Recommendation/Review #1:
Ernst, Lisa Campbell. The Turn-Around, Upside-Down Alphabet Book. illus. Simon & Schuster. (0-689-85685-7)
A visually imaginative alphabet book, this reveals images from the ordinary to the unusual if a child turns it clockwise.
Professional Recommendation/Review #2:
Conluence furman
*Awards: *NCTE Notable Children's Books in the Language Arts, Virginia Young Readers List
Summary: This book takes its readers on an active alphabet journey. Readers must turn the book clockwise on every page to see what each letter looks like at different angles.
Classroom Ideas: Students can draw things that start with each letter of the alphabet and incorporate the respective letter into each drawing. Discussion may center on alphabet recognition and where they can see letters in the world around them. Vocabulary includes "masquerades," "Martian," and "engineer."
Additional Information: A wide variety of colors is used for the letters and their backgrounds. Readers must use their imaginations to picture what the different letters resemble.

Response to Two Professional Reviews:
Both reviews note that the book reveals all different kinds of images for the children to respond to. They can engage in the conversation of the classroom just by paying attention and observing what letter and picture the teacher is focusing on that day.
Evaluation of Literary Elements:
This book has been purposefully used in classrooms to engage students in thinking about what things around us look like a certain letter as well as possibly starting with that letter.
Consideration of Instructional Application:
I would read this book during an open read allowed. I would want my students to participate in the discussion as we look over what letter we are learning about as well as what things surrounding us look like the letters. Once students point out what they have observed you can even ask students what they know that starts with that letter instead of just what looks like that letter.

[Jeceka Pitchford · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an alphabet book on another level. The students will get the turn the book every different way and see what each letter will turn into, which will encourage them to use their imagination. While reading this book, I could ask the students what else they see when they look at the letters and see what kind of ideas they will come up with.

[Jill Espinoza · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was very different from most alphabet books. There were only capital letters which I do not care for because all students write in lowercase letters so I believe it is necessary to have both uppercase and lowercase letters. Also another thing I did not like about the book was that the pictures that each letter made did not start with the letter that was being represented on the page. This book was different from most alphabet books but I don't know that I would recommend it to someone.

[Alexander Goos · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Turn-Around Upside-Down Alphabet Book by Lisa Campbell Ernst.

This book teaches children their ABCs. It uses a very interesting method to get kids to learn, The book has to be turned around and flipped upside down to read every word that is written on each page and it describes the various shapes or images that the shape of each letter can appear as to the trained eye.

I enjoyed this book because out of every single children's book I've read in this class and in my life so far this was the most unique because it really got the reader involved in the book not just by having a character break the fourth wall and "talk to" the reader. But literally getting the reader to look at the book differently.

The illustrations were simple but also intriguing because as the reader looks at the illustrations of the various letters like A, R, or Y; The reader also sees various different shapes which can be different images and I find that really unique and groundbreaking when it comes to teaching the alphabet.

For obvious reasons this book will be well used in the classroom when it comes to teaching children the alphabet and I think for group activity something that would be really good to use in a lesson plan based off this book is how each letter when you tilted in a certain angle will show you different images so I would have the students write down what they think each letter looks like upside down, on its side, or backwards.

[Zhiyin Jin · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Turn-Around, Upside-down, Alphabet Book, by Lisa Campbell Ernst
What does an A look like? A bridge? What about turn it left. So how does it look like now? You won’t get bored with this book, partly because you need to turn the books four times per page in order to finish reading it. More important, you will be amazed by how creative the author is in imaging an alphabet as another item.

In terms of creativeness, it will be a fun book to read aloud. I can see children staring at the pages and calling out how the alphabets look like. We will definitely get surprising answers. It will be a book easily engaging young students because it is very original and imaginative, just like those young students. Some readers argue if it’s a proper book for young students since it may confuse them, especially for those they haven’t known the right way to hold a book. However, think about in this way, a teacher can actually hold an alphabet card in the right way in one hand and have the book on the other hand turning around. Let the children observe and decide which the right orientation is for holding a book and reading in English. This book can also be used with children having already learned to read and write in English. In this book, four verbs are repeated to analogize one alphabet to something, thus it can be model for poem writing.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Turn-Around, Upside-Down Alphabet Book by Lisa Campbell Ernst is a look at the imaginative possibilities when one turns each letter of the alphabet around.

Ernst's illustrations are rendered in cut paper. For me, the most effective images/descriptions are a, b, c, d, h, i, j, m, o, p, q, t, v, and x. The lesat effecive letter/description for me was g.

This is a creative alphabet book that encourages imagination, using different perspectives, and the discussion of letter shapes. This book offers art class possibilities. It does require constantly turning the book around, which can be considered interactivity, but could be considered annoying by some readers. This is not a first choice for for those just learning alphabet, as it could be confusing for very young children.

For the target audience, this is a creative look at the alphabet letters as art, and a good choice to stretch young learners view of the alphabet. 3.5 star rating.

For ages 3.5 to 6, alphabet, art, perspective, creativity, imagination, print awareness, and fans of Lisa Campbell Ernst.

[Madison Snow · Rating 1 out of 5]

"The Turn-Around Upside-Down Alphabet book" by Lisa Campbell Ernst has a simple cover featuring a black background with bold font letters in the middle. The letters are all turned different ways as a preview of what is to come in the book. The binding is a simple orange color with no illustration. Simplistic color schemes continue throughout the book. On each page a letter is featured with text around it. The reader turns the page to read the sentences. Upon turning the page the letter will appear to look like what the sentence is talking about. For example, "A becomes, a birds beck, a drippy ice cream cone, a point of a wishing star." The reader turns the page these images become more visible. Some of the letters did not match the text and I could not visibly see images as they described. Also, the colors made it difficult to see the letters clearly. Overall, I did not enjoy this book because it is not suitable for read aloud and turning the book around every page gets old after a couple pages. I do not think a small child would be able to stay attentive for twenty-six pages. This book would be well suited for first or second graders.

[Allyson Sparks · Rating 1 out of 5]

I believe that this book is creative and I think it must have taken a lot to come up with all the interpretations of each letter in the alphabet. This book is a unique way for students to become familiar with the alphabet. However, I feel that this may be a little distracting for the students. As I was reading, I became annoyed with having the keep turning the book and I wasn't even paying attention to what the letter was or what picture the letter made. Also, if the students do not know the alphabet yet, then I am concerned with some of the words used in this book such as masquerades. I believe this book could benefit more if it were a quick review of the alphabet and the students already knew the letters. This way, the students could really get a good look at the letter. The big, bold letters are very nice, but the writing that goes all around causing the reader to turn the book every few words might just be too much.

[Tara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book- I thought it was a great way to look at the alphabet in a new way. It looks at the alphabet in a creative way and allows students to explore shapes, as well as letters. This book can allow students to make connections to self as well as connections to world and activate schema. This could lead to fun writing assignments- tell a story about a letter or could lead to weekly writing assignments based on a squiggle. This is one of my favorite writing activities! Each week students are given a "squiggle," and they add onto that squiggle to create a drawing. From there, they must create a story (this can work for first grade as well as second or third). It allows students to be creative and I think this book would be a great introduction to that- looking at something, letters, that we have been trained to see in one way, and finding new perspective.

[Heather Minson · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Turn-Around, Upside-Down Alphabet Book is the perfect alphabet book for early readers around the pre-k, kindergarten, and even first grade age. This is a colorful and creative book. To be read, the book must be turned in each direction to read the words and see the pictures. This book would be especially effective in preschool and kindergarten classrooms to teach print awareness. I would use this in my classroom to demonstrate awareness of the concepts of print. This fun book makes concepts of print easy to catch on to all while learning the alphabet. This is a very simple book, so no inappropriate content or concerning pictures are found. The story follows the alphabet in order, and each time you turn the book to read the words, the letter appears to be a different image. I enjoyed this book's creativity and bright colors.