 
|
The most challenging part about Steve Martin’s children’s book will be determining who will derive more pleasure from it - children or their parents. In The Alphabet from A to Y With Bonus Letter Z!, each page features an amusing self-contained (and sometimes nonsensical) statement revolving around the letter. Aside from being a tongue-twister, the words will also create an image in the reader’s mind that will likely closely match the brilliant animated cartoon sketch that accompanies them.
By way of example, the text illuminating the letter “x” is
“[a]mbidextrous Alex was actually axed for waxing, then faxing, his boss’s new slacks.” The page opposite the text is a comprehensive illustration of an office for the Xerxes Xylophone Company, with four co-workers: one playing a xylophone, one faxing a pair of pants, one looking for her “xenon”, and the fourth a frazzled boss yelling at the faxing employee he has fired. Even the smallest details are amusing - labels on the desk drawers (one for ex-customers, one for excuses and explanations, and the others for extra pencils and pens) to the profit-and-loss chart which happens to result in a graphic resembling an x.
Steven Martin’s illuminating alliterations and longtime contributing New Yorker cartoonist Roz Chast’s brilliant illustrations masterfully appeal to the simplicity of children and the greater sophistication of adults. The true bonus in The Alphabet from A to Y With Bonus Letter Z! is not really the letter z but the fact that this book is reasonably priced and available to bring home to your child.
|
|
The Alphabet from A to Y With Bonus Letter Z!