THE ALPHABET TALE

One of the most appealing things about the youngest non-readers when they are meeting books is that they will go back and laugh where they laughed the first time (or groan again where they heard their readers groan) just for the pure pleasure in response. This alphabet book has a number of laughs and at least four groans built in, as well as some necessary features for teaching the alphabet. For laughs, there is a scrap of an animal tail showing on the odd numbered pages next to a cluing rhyme to help the youngster guess which animal it belongs to. On the verso, the rest of the animal is shown, illustrated in bright colors, identifiable as to form and nomical in expression. The groans will arise over the animals attached to the letters N, U, and X -- unless the adult reader is a dedicated crossword puzzler. Illustrating letters are big, bold caps in red, while the rest of the text, in black, is large and clear. Good looking and good fun for abecedarians.