HAROLD'S ABC
illustrated by Crockett Johnson
Harold's purple crayon comes into action again as he takes his youngest audience on a dream trip through the alphabet. Dragging the purple crayon purposefully behind him or pushing it before, Harold finds the letters of the alphabet emerging from the clever and imaginative situations that his midnight drift through time and space allow him. The concept of the book is reminiscent of Curious George Learns the Alphabet (196, p. 53, J-21) but this is the better book. The letters come up on pages uncluttered many colors and the short captions make use of the letters' prime sounds while carrying the story forward. The author/illustrator is the creator of the popular and approved comic-strip Barnaby.