ALPHABET SOUP

Here's a benign variation on Sendak's Wild Things: grumpy Boy doesn't want to eat his lunch; left alone with it, he dips into his alphabet soup and pulls out a series of words that represent transformations of things visible in the first picture (e.g., a honey container becomes his companion, Bear; a pepper grinder makes an ogre; a plate of fruit, a mountain). In a landscape visually akin to his kitchen tabletop, he has a series of adventures in which he is usually the hero rescuing the bear. By the time the adventures are over, the soup is all gone too. Sis's stylish illustrations, cleverly relating the mundane and imaginary images, are most interesting here. This will be fun not only for beginning readers but also for prereaders--who will enjoy identifying the noodle letters scattered over the soup-toned frames and text background.