A beautiful production. The spirit of Lear's nonsense is perfectly captured by Radunsky's design and illustrations. I love the little homages to Lear throughout. ( )

uitg 1968

This book writes a short senseless poem about something starting with each letter of the alphabet. Many of the things chosen to be written about are not the typical objects that students learn to correspond with letters. For example, "U" is for "urn" and "Z" is for "zinc." Every poem follows the exact same pattern which is essentially, "There once was a little 'cat' catty watty tatty batty fatty catty little cat." I think that the students could find these poems catchy and it may help them remember letter sounds. However, due to this format on every page, I find this book to be a little too repetitive. I guess that it is fun that the poems sound like they were made up by a two year old, but I really do not think this book could evoke very significant learning. If I were teaching this book I would minimize the learning of the "poetry" and focus on the pattern of the words when students are learning about patterns in any subject. Overall, I believe there are better books to read for the purpose of poetry. ( )

Summary:
This book is about the alphabet from A-Z. Each letter has a funny rhyme to it. For example:

F was once a little Fish
Fishy
Wishy
Squishy
Fishy
In a dishy
Little fish

V was once a little vine
Viny
Winy
Twiny
Viny
Twisty twiny
Little Vine

Personal Reaction:
This book is a really neat way to teach the alphabet. The rhyming is very silly and catchy. The illustrations are great and cover the pages.

Classroom Extension Ideas:
1. This book could be used to teach children their alphabet.
2. This book could be used in a rhyming lesson. ( )

Summary;
This book is a collection of poetry following all the letters of the alphabet. Each poem starts with a letter of the alphabet in order. The first poem starts with a representing an apple pie. The last poem starts with a z representing a piece of zinc.

Personal Reaction;
I loved this collection of poetry. I would love to read this book to a class full of pre school or kindergarten students. This is a very fun book!

Classroom Extension Ideas:
1. I would read this book aloud to my class and have them recite the alphabet as I turned each page.

2. I would read this book to my class then have the students draw a letter of the alphabet from a hat. The class would then draw a picture of something starting with the letter they drew from the hat just as in the book. ( )