Copyright 2006 Julie Shepherd Knapp |
Copyright 2006 Julie Shepherd Knapp. All rights reserved. |
about the book |
The Homeschool Diner's Guide to Learning to Read All time Favorites -- ABC Books by Julie Shepherd Knapp, copyright 2006 Looking to add some spice to your ABC's? Check out these truly memorable ones! Looking for "that something special" in an ABC book? See if you can find some of these "not so ordinary" ABC books to jumpstart your storytime. Many of these are out of print, but check with your library and keep a look- out for them on eBay and in your local garage sales and thrift stores! We're long past the ABC books at our house -- let me know about any of your more recent favorites that deserve a place on our list :-) Nerdy Baby ABCs -- available in posters and as flash cards (check out their other fun geeky products for youngsters , too ;-) 3-D ABC: A Sculptural Alphabet by Bob Raczka, 2006, ISBN: 0761394567. Learn about sculpture as you learn your letters. Alphabet Rescue by Audrey Wood, 2006, ISBN: 0439853168. In this ABC book the letters are personified... the lower-case letters want to be firefighters, but when upper-case Chief F says they’re too small... they create their own fire brigade anyway... and, of course, they end up saving the day. Good story line, clever use of letters, vibrant digital illustrations. Alphabet Explosion: Search and Count from Alien to Zebra by John Nickle, 2006, ISBN: 978-0-375-93598-5. Exciting airbrush and digitial illustrations and as many as 37 items on each letter page A is for Angry by Sandra Boynton -- in an refreshing twist, each letter is represented by an adjective, instead on a noun! Kids will have fun acting out the words for each letter. Here is a lesson plan for getting kids to use more adjectives that includes this book, and others -- Delicious, Tasty, Yummy: Enriching Writing with Adjectives and Synonyms Animal Alphabet by Alex Lluch, 2005, ISBN: 1-887169-49-0. Each left-hand page shows a single letter and a fun, brightly-colored animal... the opposite page shows the tail end of the next animal... leading children to guess which animal will be seen with the next letter. Winnie the Pooh ABCs: Discovering Letters and Words -- a sweet DVD with Pooh and the gang, Disney Learning Adventures, 2004 My Beastie Book of ABC: Rhymes and Woodcuts by David Frampton, Harper-Collins, 2002. Bold woodcuts in bright colors spotlight animals with humorous rhymes, such as: "A is for alligator. Her teeth are quite awesome. Yours will be too, if you just brush and floss 'em." One letter per page, with an animal and a rhyme. "The Cowboy ABC" by Chris Demarest, 1999 ISBN: 0-7894-2509-2. Lovely watercolor illustrations of southwestern scenery, animals, and cowboy life Includes F for farrier, J for jinglebobs, and X is the mark cowboys make to get paid. "The Sweet and Sour Animal Book" an ABC book by Langston Hughes, 1997, ISBN13: 978-0-19-512030-1. Illustrated with amazing artwork by students of the Harlem School of Arts, the first publishing for 26 "short and wonderfully clever poems" by Langston Hughes "Animals A to ZOO" by Julie Lee and Jackie Northland, illustrated by Kristine Kirkeby, 1995, ISBN: 0-9649808-0 published by the Minnesota Zoo. Fun colored-pencil drawings of smiling and laughing animals doing crazy things, such as iguanas ice fishing for "I" and all the animals catching "Z's" at the end. "The Cat ABC" by Josie Firmin, 1994 ISBN: 0-307-1751-4-6 Cute pen and watercolor drawings of cartoony cats who are doing something letter-related on each page -- "nibbling noodles"or "verifying vertibrae" or "zipping zippers". "Eating the Alphabet" by Lois Ehlert, 1994 ISBN: 0-15-2224435-2 Gorgeous bold water color images of fruits and veggies (1 - 12 for each letter), such as fig for "F" and mango for "M". I have a toddler-friendly "board book" copy. "City Scene from A to Z" by Rachel Isadora, 1983 ISBN:0-688-01802-5 The illustrations are charming black and white etchings (or possibly pen and ink drawings) of children and families in city settings. One word per page. Includes E for subway entrance, G for gallery, and J for jazz. "Anno's Alphabet" an adventure in imagination by Mitsumasa Anno, 1975. "Read and Hear ABC Rhymes" by Carl Memling, 1964. This vintage Little Golden Book comes with a 45rpm vinyl record to play while your child reads (if you can scrounge up a record player ;-) Each letter has a peom/song starting with "I'd like to..." such as "I'd like to sail the ocean deep... for "O". "The Big Golden Animal ABC" by Garth Williams, 1954 (reprinted 1980) ISBN: 0-307-10457-5 This oversized book (9x12) is very simple in design, with a wonderful, large, watercolor animal for each letter,and a small bunny that appears on each page and interacts with the main animal (for comic releif ;-) If you're a fan of Garth Williams, you'll enjoy this book. "The ABC Bunny" by Wanda G. Coward, 1933... an oldie but a goodie. Favorite Online ABC Resources Bembos Zoo -- pick a letter, and it will be turned into an animal, using the letters in the animal's name |
Have any favorite ABC books of your own to recommend? I'd love to hear about them! Drop me a line at: submissions at homeschooldiner dot com (simply replace "at" with @ and "dot" with . ) |