ALPHABEASTIES AND OTHER AMAZING TYPES

Two graphic designers show their typographical chops with an alphabetically arranged menagerie of easily recognizable animal silhouettes entirely constructed from blizzards of single letters. Artfully placed flaps and folds add fine visual surprises—an Alligator that suddenly yawns, a rearing Unicorn, a Giraffe that s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-s unexpectedly up and down. Without sacrificing an overall visual unity the authors also vary their page and spread layouts in lively ways, creating background details not with drawn lines but fluent lines of words and adding alliterative side galleries of additional figures or single letters in various styles (“This U undulates and has an upturned tail”). It’s all intended to promote awareness of typeface and letter design, for a younger audience than might be drawn to Roberto de Vicq de Cumptich’s Bembo’s Zoo (2000) or Cathryn Falwell’s Letter Jesters (1994). Pre-readers will gather too, if just to take pleasure from decoding the animal shapes. (Picture book. 3 & up)