cute book to read to younger grades and preschoolers to get them familiar with the alphabet and the alphabet sounds.

ACTION ALPHABET is a simple alphabet language book for very young children. This book would be great to use at the beginning of a school year to explore the letters of the alphabet and different words that begin with each letter. Children will enjoy the real-life photographs of other children depicting each letter of the alphabet. There are none of the usual nonfiction text features in this book. It is clear that the author intended this book to be an information book for young students to learn about the alphabet and not much more. ( )

Action Alphabet is a simple, but clever way to learn letter recognition. The illustrations are full-page and with limited objects, which draws the reader's eye to the action that corresponds with the letter (i.e., d's picture is of a D dripping from a faucet). A caption briefly states each action (i.e., Dd: drip). In addition, the use of negative space and contrast (black against white) makes the author's purpose clear. The double-page layout is consistent for each letter, making the format predictable. The book could be a bit misleading as not every letter has a verb, some are nouns.

Age Appropriate: toddler to kindergarten

Neumeier, M. (1984). Action alphabet. New York: Greenwillow Books. ( )