A IS FOR APPLE, UNLESS . . .

Hold your nose while two siblings take readers from A to Z.

Rendered with oversized heads on small bodies, the pale, dark-haired siblings assign a word to each letter of the alphabet in seemingly conventional fashion (“A is for Apple”), but each entry is followed by an “unless…” or its semantic equivalent: “unless you’re being chased / by a bloodsucking vampire, / then A is for AAAAAAGGHHH!!!” The insolent, petulant short-haired sibling is fond of sister-taunting, chasing her in a vampire costume and, later, scaring her with a dangling reptile when “S is for Snake.” The same child also throws a fit to get some ice cream, informing readers, “if you scream loud enough (and long enough), you’ll probably get some.” There’s a heavy dose of potty humor—instances of “doo-doo,” poop, pee, (lots of) farting, and undies—as well as repeated vomiting and nose-picking. Some of the entries are a stretch, making for a disjointed text: A monkey suddenly appears when “M is for Monkey / unless you have mountains of money. / Then M can be for whatever you want.” Per abecedary best practices, the capital and lowercase versions of each letter are included, but the book is primarily about grubby horseplay and mean-spirited pranks, not so much for teaching phonemic awareness or building vocabulary. Aiming for irreverent and mischievous, the book meets those marks, but little about the story or characters is likable. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)

Unpleasant…unless you love truly gross humor.