ABC books

Marcie Aboff, illustrated by Zachary Trover,
Guatemala ABCs: A Book About the People and Places of Guatemala
Picture Window Books, 2006.
Picture Windows’ Country ABCs series, by different authors and illustrators, is a good resource for introducing different countries. This one focuses on Guatemala's geography, history and culture with clear text and bright, engaging illustrations. It includes guidelines for Spanish pronunciation.

Alma Flor Ada, illustrated by Simon Silva,
Gathering the Sun: An Alphabet in Spanish and English
Rayo, 1997.
In her selection of bilingual books for reading to children, librarian Ana-Elba Pavon said of this beautiful, verse abecedario: it is “a tribute to working in the fields. A collection of poems, it includes Cesar Chavez, individual fruits and vegetables, and other Latino symbols. Use the poem under the letter "O" for "Orgullo" or "Pride" as a chant with your audience. Have them repeat each verse of the poem after you read it.”  Absolutely!

Mitsumasa Anno, Masaichiro Anno,
Anno’s Magical ABC: An Anamorphic Alphabet
Philomel Books, 1981.
It’s hard to choose just one from among Anno’s alphabet books, but this one, which, like The Mysterious Multiplying Jar below, he wrote with his son, is something really special. You need a metal tube placed over the encircled plant at the centre of each page – then read the book one way and you have small letters plus an animal; and turn the book over and start again for the capital letters with a more esoteric selection of words.  Then look carefully and you realise that the exquisite botanical drawings form an alphabet too – all is revealed in the “Clues to Anno’s spells” and he even shows you how to do an anamorphic drawing for yourself. Wonderful!

Bronwyn Bancroft,
An Australian ABC of Animals
Little Hare, 2004.
A very simple layout – the letter at the top of the page and the word at the bottom – puts all the focus on the stunning illustrations in this Alphabet Book for tots and Aboriginal art-lovers alike.  Although based on Australian Aboriginal patterns and designs, Bancroft’s palate is based around the less traditional blues and greens that have become her trademark.

Graeme Base,
Animalia
Harry N. Abrams, 1987.
Glorious alliteration and Base’s sumptuous artwork have children and adults alike poring over the pictures trying to find everything for each letter.  The slightly surreal juxtapositions just add to the experience.

Warren Brim, Anna Eglitis,
Creatures of the Rainforest/ Two artists discover Djabugay country
Magabala Books, 2005.
Each of the creatures, plus a couple of plants, in this gorgeous Australian book is illustrated both in linocut and in a traditional aboriginal style.  The text is well written and laden with information; and key phrases are also given in Djabugay.  Another favorite with my younger, animal-mad son.

Cynthia Chin-Lee, illustrated by Yumi Heo,
A is for Asia
Orchard Books 1997.
A wonderful book for introducing children to all of Asia – “one-third of the earth”. Each letter focuses on something special from countries as far apart as “S is for sled races” in Siberia and “B is for Batik” in Indonesia.  Lively language and lovely, busy pictures – and each word is also written in the most relevant language too.

Cynthia Chin-Lee, illustrated by Megan Halsey and Sean Addy,
Amelia to Zora: Twenty-six Women Who Changed the World
Charlesbridge, 2005;
Akira to Zoltán: Twenty-six Men Who Changed the World
Charlesbridge, 2006.
Two books which offer an inspiring line-up of people from all over the world and from many different cultures, who did just what the title says – they changed the world.  It could be a cliché but when you stop and take stock, that’s pretty amazing.  Imaginative artwork using vintage collage draws young readers in to each page – and there’s a memorable quotation from each person too.

Carol Crane, illustrated by Zong-Zhou Wang,
D is for Dancing Dragon: A China Alphabet
Sleeping Bear Press 2006.
A short rhyme for each letter and lovely illustrations introduce China and Chinese culture to young children – but this is also one for older readers, with panels of in-depth information running alongside, written in an engaging and direct style which will appeal.

Demi,
Find the Animal ABC: an alphabet game book
Grosset & Dunlap, 1985.
Double-pages teem with the animals but there is only one that matches the one highlighted (“Ee - Can you find this elephant?”).  Half the pictures are beautifully colored and half are in black and white; half spread the animals about in a landscape and half enclose them in the giant outline of the animal in question – and cleverly Demi swaps over the coloring half-way through.  A whimsical delight – and not just for the tinies: my seven-year-old son still loves this one.

Maywan Shen Krach, illustrated by Hongbin Zhang,
D is for Doufu: An Alphabet Book of Chinese Culture
Shen’s Books, 1997.
A beautiful book for older children who are interested in Chinese culture.  As I mentioned in my introduction, each of the 23 words is a romanized Chinese word and the text for each word starts off with a closer look at the word and its Chinese character. Lots of fascinating historical detail.

Pat Mora, illustrated by Doug Cushman,
¡Marimba!: Animales from A to Z
Clarion Books, 2006.
In an interview with PaperTigers, Pat said it’s “a zany, rhyming alphabet book set in a zoo. I was motivated to write the book by my desire to share 26 cognates, words similar in English and Spanish.” And what a fun way she has found to do that as a marimba-playing monkey entertains all the alphabet animals while the zookeeper sleeps– it will have small people laughing and learning at the same time.

Anushka Ravishankar, illustrated by Christiane Pieper,
Alphabets are Amazing Animals
Tara Publishing, 2004.
This is one for children (and adults!) who like playing with words – each letter offers a brief excursion into the absurd through fun, quirky alliteration – like “Tiny Tadpoles Tickle Turtles." The bright, bold illustrations are highly satisfying too.

Elaine Russell,
A is for Aunty
ABC Books, 2000.
Each letter introduces a word, which is then slipped into an anecdote: and these all come together to present a lively picture of Russell's childhood on an Aborigine mission in the heart of New South Wales, Australia. Russell's rich acrylic/ gouache illustrations fairly leap off the page.

Sungwan So,
C is for China
Frances Lincoln, first published 1997.
This is the first in Frances Lincoln's stunning World Alphabet series, the latest being P is for Pakistan by Shazia Razzak and photographed by Prodeepta Das, who also wrote I is for India. Each of the books gets to the heart of the country it represents, through bright, beautiful photographs and an engaging text, by photographers who have real insight into the culture they are seeking to represent.

123 books

Mitsumasa Anno,
Anno’s Counting Book
Harper Trophy, 1986.
One of Anno’s exquisite, wordless books, it goes through from zero, an empty, snowy landscape, to number 1, January with one of everything and on up to 12 – and by December there are twelve of everything in the town that has sprung up over the previous pages. Anno has tapped into the human psyche – child or adult, we will count, even when we know what number of things there will be!

Indra Banu (illustrator),
The Merasi Counting Book
Folk Arts Rajasthan, 2008.
A beautifully produced bilingual (Hindi and English) counting book featuring traditional Rajasthani folk art. Young children will love the bright colors and enjoy counting the triangles, which seem to dance across the page for each number. Produced by the Merasi, a musician community with a long heritage, the book also provides some cultural background and a good table at the back with numbers and words up to twenty in both languages and the Hindi pronunciation.

Graeme Base,
The Waterhole
Harry N. Abrams, 2001.
Each number in this stunning counting book features a different habitat somewhere on the earth, as animals come to the Waterhole in increasing numbers from one to ten – but the waterhole is drying up, until there is nothing left but the shadowed outlines of extinct animals in a gnarled old tree.  It certainly brings home how precious water is, without having to say so – but the text is full of fun animal noises and there are patterns of details to look for throughout.  Definitely one for the whole family.

Sally Heinrich,
Cherry Stones: a book of numbers
Lothian, 1998.
Based around the counting rhyme Tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor... this book unusually goes up to 13 - a baker's dozen. Each double-page spread is crammed with things and characters to find - clues are given in the rhymes reproduced in the inside covers; and all around the edges are the number in twenty-six different languages, as well as Roman numerals, Auslan (Australian sign language) and braille. Useful teachers' notes and a key can be found here.

Huy Voun Lee,
1, 2, 3, Go!
Henry Holt, 2001.
This is a wonderful book to introduce Chinese characters.  The striking illustrations in delicate collage show one to ten people carrying out an action. The two-word caption of the number and a verb (“Four push”, “Six pull”...) is repeated with its Chinese characters on the right-hand-side so that the logical patterns emerge: not only for the characters for 1-10, but also showing how actions requiring hands all contain the character for hands in Chinese, and the same for feet, etc.

Celeste Davidson Mannis, illustrated by Susan Kathleen Hartung,
One Leaf Rides the Wind
Viking Juvenile, 2002.
As a little girl wanders through a Japanese Garden, she passes one leaf, two carved temple dogs, three miniature bonsai and so on, each introduced via a lilting haiku.  Gentle, restful tones depict the garden, which can be seen as a whole in the final illustration so young readers can work out the route and find everything all over again. Both the poetry and the fact that each item is accompanied by some cultural background make this more than just a straightforward counting book.

Yuyi Morales,
Just A Minute: A Trickster Tale and Counting Book
Chronicle Books, 2003.
Señor Calavera comes knocking on Grandma Beetle’s door but she has so many things to do before she can go with him (...“six pots of food to cook”, “seven piñatas to fill,” etc), that he’ll just have to wait!  The illustrations are infectiously jolly – I love the skeleton’s oh, so expressive flowers for eyes; and children will learn to count to ten in Spanish too.  A delight!

Pegi Deitz Shea and Cynthia Weill, illustrated by To Ngoc Trang, embroidered by Phat Viet Dinh in Vietnam,
Ten Mice for Tet
Chronicle Books, 2003.
A simple counting book showing mice preparing for their Vietnamese New Year party, this is a delightful and humorous introduction to the celebration for young children, who will find plenty of details to talk about beyond the simple text. Part of a very special collaboration, all the artwork for the book was embroidered in Vietnam – watch this brief slideshow.

Roseanne Thong, illustrated by Grace Lin,
One Is a Drummer: A Book of Numbers
Chronicle Books, 2004.
This is a counting book with a truly multicultural slant, perfect for a child of mixed Chinese and Western heritage, but universally appealing. The rhymes are snappy and fun and the illustrations buzz with wit and energy (I love it that the dragon-boat drummer for number one is a woman wearing glasses!).

"More-than-counting" number books

John Agard, illustrated by Satoshi Kitamura,
Einstein, the Girl Who Hated Maths
Hodder Children’s Books, 2002.
Fun and funny poetry about math, ranging from the title poem, where Einstein’s parents try and persuade her that math is great, to an introduction to the Quipo, the Ancient Inca counting device.  Kitamura’s illustrations add an extra dose of fun to the story.

Mitsumasa Anno,
Anno’s Magic Seeds
Philomel, 1995.
An enchanting story, almost a parable, which shows the difference between having two seeds and always using one; and holding back, letting two become four then for ever after eating one and planting the rest.  What a wealth of seeds after a few years!  When a storm comes and wipes out all but 10 of the seeds, Jack is not wholly discouraged because he knows he can start over – the important thing is his family and animals all survived.  And typical of Anno, note the allusion to a well-known nineteenth-century painting at the end...

Mitsumasa and Masaichiro Anno,
Anno’s Mysterious Multiplying Jar
Philomel, 1983.
When a mathematical concept is presented in a book like this, it can only be beautiful!  One exquisite blue and white china jar containing an island – one island, two countries; each country, three mountains; each mountain, four walled kingdoms; and so on: and so we are presented with factorials – then, to make sure it’s clear, the text is repeated showing each complete multiplication sum and the total number of each item in red dots... Pure elegance.

Andrea Cheng, illustrated by Ange Zhang,
Grandfather Counts
Lee and Low, 2000.
A story of a family’s adjustment to Gong Gong (Grandfather) moving from China to live with them in the US.  He doesn’t speak any English and the children don’t speak Chinese but through teaching each other how to count, the special bond between children and grandparent is established.  Cheng evokes the tensions at the beginning well; and the illustrations are charming – Gong Gong’s smile, when it comes, is irresistible.

Demi,
One Grain of Rice: A Mathematical Folktale
Scholastic Press, 1997.
A young girl teaches a greedy raja a lesson when he grants her request for a single grain of rice doubled each day for thirty days... it’s hard to believe the total on Day 30 is more than half a billion but fortunately there’s a precise table at the end to prove it!  The story is told with Demi's typical lightness of touch and the illustrations, in a traditional Indian style with lots of gold and bright colours, are sumptuous,

Virginia Walton Pilegard, illustrated by Nicolas Debon,
The Warlord’s Puzzle: A Mathematical Adventure
Pelican Publishing, 2000.
This is the first in a series of mathematical adventures, which use stories to make children think about how things work – like kites and compasses.  This one focuses on the tangram puzzle and is a retelling of the original legend of an artist in China during the T’ang dynasty who dropped a tile, which broke into 7 pieces.  Here, the warlord is incensed but agrees to see if someone can be found to put the pieces back together – otherwise the artist will be severely punished.  Of course, it is the boy rather than the haughty scholar who is able to do so...  The books in this series are a great classroom resource for bringing together literacy and numeracy and I expect the echoes of computer-game graphics in the illustrations means that the books will be of particular appeal to boys.

Posted July 2008