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A GOOD ALPHABET book is like a raucous playroom for language, persuading children to internalize the ABCs by turning the letters into toys. Rhymes and rhythm, metaphor and simile, alliteration, assonance and consonance - the ABC book's verbal gymnastics match the alphabet's inherently visual nature, making the genre not just a feast for young readers but a rewarding medium for illustrators and designers too. Five new ABC books revel in that word and image play. With its dark red and sepia tones, the punningly titled "Alphabetabum" evokes a lost world of European composition books, exotic passports, vintage photo albums and old-school primers. It addresses children and nostalgic adult readers alike, with a rhyming verse for each letter accompanied by a 19th- or early-20th-century studio photo or carte de visite. Some readers might find something disturbing about this appropriation for amusement of found images of real people from the past. Take the cover image, of a small girl in a short dress with a sash, costumed for a dance performance, perhaps, looking out at the camera with a pleased smile, hands behind her back. Inside, the rhyme for A calls her "Awkward Agnes Alexandra" who "shows her ample ankles/although her knees are grander." I want to protest for her sake that there's nothing amiss about her ankles in their white socks. Still, children, like adults, might enjoy the chance to meet the eyes of this "Agnes" or that "Margo" gazing back at us from a vanished century. Vintage photos, like our own early reading memories, are inevitably laced with a sense of lost time. In "Alphabetabum," the rhymes infuse the letters with affect, reminding us of that other use we make of the alphabet: bringing order to random accumulations - such as old photos of strangers - that can elicit hard-to-define emotions. (One hopes that someone will claim some of these children as ancestors!) "Once Upon an Alphabet," by Oliver Jeffers ("How to Catch a Star," "The Day the Crayons Quit"), offers "short stories for all the letters," a time-honored approach to the genre, though Jeffers uses mostly prose rather than the usual all-rhyme. The letters appear as colorful outsize hand-drawn capitals on the "title page" of each story. For A, we get "An Astronaut," in bright teal on black. A little white figure stares up, daunted, at the giant letter; as we learn, he's afraid of heights. Others, recalling Edward Gorey's wicked "The Gashlycrumb Times," fare even less well than the astronaut. Poor Helen who lives in H's "half a house" rolls out of bed into the sea one morning; T's "terrible typewriter" conjures a typist-eating monster. C's cup, which dreams of living on the windowsill, falls and breaks in the leap from the cupboard. In the generous spirit of this book, though, O's octopus and owl, who "search for problems," glue it back together. The cup ends up broken again in the margins of the typewriter story, but children will enjoy detecting such morsels that trail through the pages. Michaël Escoffier and Kris Di Giacomo innovate on the ABC genre in "Take Away the A" by reminding us, like the loftiest deconstructionists, that language is built around trivial and arbitrary distinctions that can mark vast differences. One small change and everything changes: "Without the A," they show us, "the Beast is the Best." As profound and stimulating as adults might find the conceit, everything about this attractive book warmly addresses a child. Di Giacomo's palimpsest-like illustrations featuring appealing animal protagonists are their own reward. A little white rat threads its way through, its tiny reaction shots standing in for the child reader's. Wolves, witches, a fiddling cat and seven dwarves dance across the pages, gesturing to the wealth of children's literature beyond the ABCs. With rereading and maturing, young readers will discover the jokes gradually, if they don't at first go. All alphabet books require mastery of the letters in order to read them, but this one manages that paradox with genius. the aggressively hip "Alphabetics" mostly sticks to a conventional alphabet-book formula, with alliterative phrases on the left page and a full-page image on the right of each spread. Dawid Ryski's Boteroesque figures, with huge bodies and tiny heads and limbs, in a retro palette heavy on teal, gold and russet, illustrate the pointedly surreal free verses: "Atticus the altruistic astronaut/admires an ascending apple/while aviating through an anti-gravity abyss." (A is for astronaut these days, and yet inevitably that old apple still floats into view.) The verses rely on so many obscure words that the book includes a glossary, where you can look up "penny-farthing" (an early bicycle) and "lucha libre" (Mexican freestyle wrestling). You can also look up "carnie" and find the unkind characterization that carnival workers "frequently happen to be missing teeth." And, perhaps in keeping with its retro references to things like the jitterbug and mid-20th-century camera brands, elsewhere there's an incongruous image of headdress-wearing Indians. The Brooklyn/Portland artisanal aesthetic - there are "geek-chic glasses," "fro yo" and "quinoa" - might attract certain parents, and the alliterative verses are sometimes zingy, but it verges on amateurism in places, including some typos. Squarely in the primary-color, animal-intense tradition of the modern ABC book, Elizabeth Schoonmaker's "Square Cat ABC" brings back the orange kitty Eula from "Square Cat," in what is, yes, a lovely square book. A brilliant full-page red A for "Amazing" features a blue-and-pink mouse sliding down the leg of the letter into the next page, where she or he befriends the square cat, who's digging in her garden. Fans of "Square Cat" will recognize the theme of friendship's embrace of difference, as Eula introduces the frightened mouse to her pal the porcupine. Schoonmaker's page-filling red letters and bright watercolors enhance the short and sweet story meant for the youngest readers, which associates the letters with everyday words that a child might say: "Whoa," "Stop," "Hooray." When Eula persists in finding spinach "extremely Yucky," the friendly mouse offers her "Zucchini, perhaps?" Touches like that give "Square Cat ABC" the makings of a classic: Its substance comes from wearing its visual and verbal cleverness so lightly. PATRICIA CRAIN, a professor of English at New York University, is the author of "The Story of A: The Alphabetization of America From 'The New England Primer' to 'The Scarlet Letter.'"

Just when it feels like there's nothing new under the abecedarian sun, Escoffier and Di Giacomo, the team behind Brief Thief and other titles, showcase the magic of subtraction as it relates to letters, revealing how removing a single letter from a word transforms it into something else entirely. "Without the A, the beast is the best," Escoffier begins, as Di Giacomo pictures a gray, fanged monster hoisting a trophy into the air while wearing a sash that pronounces him "scariest & hairiest." (The competition wasn't exactly stiff: a nonthreatening duck and a forlorn fish occupy the second- and third-place spots on the podium.) The scenarios that follow can be romantic (after losing a G, "the glove falls in love"-with a blushing octopus), whimsical, or downright unsettling. "Without the P, the plate is too late" accompanies a scene that show mice frantically trying to deliver dinner to a cat, which has a mouse's tail dangling from its mouth. Beyond the inherent fun of the concept (which has plenty of potential for classroom activities), every scene tells a story-it's practically 26 books in one. Ages 4-8. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Gr 1-3-This is a clever and engaging "alphabeast of a book" for children capable of basic word recognition. The premise is that less is indeed more, as Escoffier moves through the alphabet, and removes a letter on each spread. Taking away an "A," "B," or "C," etc., transforms each highlighted word into a totally new one, and the wacky, almost surreal (plants wearing pants) images reinforce the humor and add to the literal wordplay. For example, "Without the D DICE are ICE" shows a wolf and a goose playing cards, while sipping umbrella drinks with ivory cubes inside. "Without the K the MONKEY makes MONEY" features a monkey ringing up sales on a cash register at his banana stand. Kids will have fun coming up with, and illustrating, reductive examples of their own. Inspired and instructive silliness.-Luann Toth, School Library Journal (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

If you are looking for an unusual alphabet book, look no further than this offering, in which the title clearly defines the premise. At first glance, the idea and the illustrations may seem simple, but the execution is sophisticated and snarkily funny. Without the A, the Beast is Best, sets the tone, and each letter has its own two-page mini story, which rewards careful observation. Di Giacomo has laced her illustrations with fairy-tale references that are a delight. A fiddle-playing cat announces Without the N, the Moon says Moo, as a caped and booted cow soars over a smiling moon. Text and illustrations that are created in a subdued palette with brighter highlights work in clever concert to make each page a new treat. This book is packed with potential use in a classroom and just as wonderful for repeated reads on laps. Pair this with Oliver Jeffers' Once upon an Alphabet (2014) for another, different approach to a familiar theme.--Rutan, Lynn Copyright 2014 Booklist

Here's a creative and sophisticated twist on the traditional alphabet book. Take a word (e.g., beast), remove one letter to make a new word (best), and imagine a scene that incorporates both words: "Without the A / the BEAST is the BEST." What elevates this concept beyond neat parlor trick are Di Giacomo's outside-the-box illustrations, which cleverly interpret the word pairings in unexpected ways. For "the GLOVE falls in LOVE," a smitten brown glove walking on its fingers follows a blushing brown octopus (five arms are visible) across the street. In "the FARM is too FAR," a wolf with a toothy grin offers a ride to a hitchhiking pig and chicken. As in this French picture-book team's previous collaborations (Brief Thief, rev. 7/13; The Day I Lost My Superpowers, rev. 7/14), text and art play effortlessly off each other to enhance humor and meaning. Each double-page spread is dedicated to one letter and discrete episode. Although the scenes aren't connected, a few recurring animal characters do pop up throughout the book, making repeat readings more satisfying. The idea peters out before the end, but the entertaining journey may inspire kids to come up with their own inventive word pairings. kitty flynn(c) Copyright 2014. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Amid the flood of alphabet books, now and then one rises to the surface. This one is a prize catch. In a distinctive, refreshing approach, the text takes a word and subtracts one letter, turning it into a different word. "Without the A / the BEAST is the BEST." The stylized illustration on the double-page spread gives form to the concept by depicting a photographer (a buzzard) focusing on the winners of a competition: A monster wearing a "Scariest and Hairiest" sash stands in first place, with a goose and fish in second and third. "Without the B / the BRIDE goes for a RIDE." A worried-looking buck holding a balloon and a doe wearing a bridal veil are riding on a Ferris wheel. Now picture these: The chair has hair; the dice are ice; plants are pants; the crab hails a cab; and so on. All of the figures are animals fashioned with touches of humor; a white mouse pops in and out throughout the scenes. For Q, the word "faquir" (a turbaned tiger) attends a "fair"; for X, "foxes" become "foes." The artwork is deceptively simple; subtle details betray its sophistication. Altogether, the fascinating illustrations, crafty composition and tall format give the book real flair. Without a doubt, these inventive images are imaginative and engagingchock full of inspiration for kids to try their own wordplay and a boon to teachers. (Alphabet picture book. 7-10) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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