Kirkus Reviews QR Code
THE ALPHABET FROM A TO Y WITH BONUS LETTER Z! by Steve Martin

THE ALPHABET FROM A TO Y WITH BONUS LETTER Z!

by Steve Martin & illustrated by Roz Chast

Pub Date: Oct. 23rd, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-385-51662-4
Publisher: Flying Dolphin/Doubleday

This high-profile crossover will slide effortlessly onto the bestseller lists, but it’s not likely to win its creators many new adult fans—or any child ones. Showing a fine disregard for foolish consistencies like end words that actually rhyme consistently, Martin fashions surreal situations in 26 couplets, each paired to a literal illustration from Chast strewn with both her customary cast of homely, anxious figures and other words or items that feature the selected letter. Though some spreads have a certain verbal and visual bounce—in the art for “Pedro the puppy piled poop on his paws / And Papa dog published his photo because,” for instance, the peeved paternal parent brandishes a copy of “Popular Pooch,” as mama dog praises a parsnip pizza—more often the captions read like random words strung together. Furthermore, some of the image choices, such as the 107 (or so) hunchbacks in Henrietta’s hairdo, or the drunk wandering past David the dog-faced boy, skate to the edge of poor taste. A gallery of accented letters on the endpapers provides some added value, but not enough. Like Shirley and Milton Glaser’s The Alphazeds (2003), any resemblance to a title for tots is coincidental. (Picture book. Adult)