Rogers returns to the class from Tiptoe into Kindergarten (1999) to introduce a flurry of letters and words in the always-winning treasure-hunt format that will have eyes poring over the pages. Using a letter-day approach, the class works its way through the alphabet—upper and lower case—focusing on activities each day that highlight the featured letter, but readers are encouraged to search the picture beyond that obvious connection. So, on Bb day, there are not only backpacks, but a ball, bat, boat, books, boots, bottles, boxes, boy, braid brown, and brush. On Nn day, it’s not just nickels, but necklace, nine, noses, note, numbers, nut. A good number of the items are none too easy to locate, but they are all there to the attentive eye. This not a primer on the ABCs, but an extension of the letter-learning process, a vocabulary builder that will test readers with the likes of easel, knees, llama, quarrel, and tambourines. (Picture book. 4-6)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-439-36837-5
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Cartwheel/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2002
Pearson takes fledgling readers out for a spin with this alphabet of trucks and traffic signs. Miller illustrates them all, Ambulance to Zamboni, with clean-lined, brightly colored roadscapes well stocked with angular vehicles—themselves stocked with a diverse cast of smiling drivers and passengers. With verbal imagery as bright as the art—“Tt is for Tow Truck. It goes fishing for cars with its giant hook, reeling them up and dragging them off”—plus ranked lines of common signs on the endpapers and several keepsakes available for downloading on Miller’s Web site, this is one ride on which children aren’t going to whine, “Are we there yet?” (Picture book. 4-6)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-8234-1722-0
Page Count: 36
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2003
Children who, like the Count on Sesame Street, “looooove to count” will be delighted with this companion to Matthew ABC (2002). The 20 Dalmatians in Mrs. Tuttle’s obedience school are all named “Daisy,” but she has no trouble telling them apart. As she explains to a befuddled assistant, “Daisy 1 has one peculiar spot, Daisy 2 wears two name tags, Daisy 3 plays three instruments,” and so on, getting sillier as it goes, up to Daisy 20, who “fools twenty fleas” into infesting a hand puppet. Each Daisy radiates bright-eyed, cheery energy in Catalanotto’s cartoonish scenes, and even younger children will have no trouble picking out, and toting up, each dog’s distinguishing feature or activity. The Daisys gather for a group portrait at the end, and Mrs. Tuttle makes a lame but giggle-inducing joke about how they all have their “spots.” A sure cure for numeral narcosis. (Picture book. 4-6)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-689-85457-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Richard Jackson/Atheneum
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2003
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