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ALFRED DIGS by Lindsay Barrett George Kirkus Star

ALFRED DIGS

by Lindsay Barrett George & illustrated by Lindsay Barrett George

Pub Date: April 1st, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-06-078760-8
Publisher: Greenwillow Books

Alfred’s not the most obedient of aardvarks, but he may be the cutest. When his pet ant Itty Bitty goes missing, Alfred casts off his mother’s request to stay put while she’s away on an errand. He leaves his cozy burrow at (of course) the very beginning of the dictionary to dig through the other letters in pursuit. Even younger children will have no trouble accepting the unusual shape of Alfred’s universe, nor in following his meandering track as, in George’s clean-lined cartoons, he goes all the way from “B” to “W” before catching up with his errant ant. A spread-filling Woodpecker provides a moment of fright, but then Mama drops in to the rescue amid a shower of loose letters, faces the beautifully rendered bird down, calmly conducts her contrite younglings to the Zoo—and then conducts them back to “A” aboard Zebra’s Zeppelin. Strewn but not crowded with letters, and animals or objects to match, this pleasant excursion through the ABCs is just the ticket for audiences ready to emerge from pre-literacy. (Picture book. 3-5)