FICTION

The Alphabet Thief

by Bill RICHARDSON
illus. by Roxanna Bikadoroff. 40p. Groundwood. Mar. 2017. Tr $16.95. ISBN 9781554988778.
COPY ISBN
K-Gr 2—The Alphabet Thief steals each letter of the alphabet, creating linguistic chaos. Can she be stopped? Not until she steals A's through Z's in the most predictable order. This clever story shows readers the result of verbal irony in its images again and again. Playful illustrations provide concrete examples, portraying baths as bats, poets as pets, horses as hoses, squashes as sashes, and many other silly transmutations. As a read-aloud, this rhyming tale is bound to lead to creative conversation about the textual and illustrative depictions of odd things left in odd situations as letters disappear from their words. Readers may be tempted to try their own letter thieving, dropping letters from words to make other recognizable words.
VERDICT Sure to delight wordsmiths of all ages. A fun read-aloud that lends itself to curricular application.
Reviewed by Lindsay Persohn, University of South Florida, Tampa , Jan 01, 2017

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