Once Upon an Alphabet: Short Stories for All the Letters

THE alphabet book to top all others, from the illustrator of the #1 New York Times bestselling The Day the Crayons Quit!

If words make up the stories and letters make up the words, then stories are made up of letters. In this menagerie we have stories made of words, made FOR all the letters.

The most inventive and irresistible book of the year spans a mere 26 letters (don't they all!) and 112 pages. From an Astronaut who's afraid of heights, to a Bridge that ends up burned between friends, to a Cup stuck in a cupboard and longing for freedom, Once Upon an Alphabet is a creative tour de force from A through Z. Slyly funny in a way kids can't resist, and gorgeously illustrated in a way readers of all ages will pour over, this series of interconnected stories and characters explores the alphabet in a way that will forever raise the bar.

In Once Upon an Alphabet, #1 New York Times bestseller Oliver Jeffers has created a stunning collection of words and artwork that is a story book, alphabet book, and gorgeously designed art book all in one.

Praise for ONCE UPON AN ALPHABET:

• "The silly, spare, slightly surreal text occasionally rhymes and endlessly surprises. An utterly delightful alphabet book."—Kirkus Review, starred review

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Once Upon an Alphabet: Short Stories for All the Letters

Praise for ONCE UPON AN ALPHABET:

• "The silly, spare, slightly surreal text occasionally rhymes and endlessly surprises. An utterly delightful alphabet book."—Kirkus Review, starred review

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Once Upon an Alphabet: Short Stories for All the Letters

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Once Upon an Alphabet: Short Stories for All the Letters

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Overview

Praise for ONCE UPON AN ALPHABET:

• "The silly, spare, slightly surreal text occasionally rhymes and endlessly surprises. An utterly delightful alphabet book."—Kirkus Review, starred review

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780399167911
Publisher:	Penguin Young Readers Group
Publication date:	10/14/2014
Pages:	112
Sales rank:	77,540
Product dimensions:	9.50(w) x 12.40(h) x 0.80(d)
Lexile:	AD630L (what's this?)
Age Range:	3 - 5 Years

About the Author

Oliver Jeffers (www.oliverjeffersworld.com) creates art for children and adults alike. His picture books, including Stuck, Lost and Found, How to Catch a Star, The Incredible Book Eating Boy, This Moose Belongs to Me, and The Day the Crayons Quit (a #1 bestseller) written by Drew Daywalt), have garnered multiple starred reviews and spots on the New York Times bestseller list. The Hueys in: The New Sweater was named a New York Times Best Illustrated Book of the Year in 2012. Oliver also hand-lettered the lyric video for U2's single, "Ordinary Love."Originally from Belfast, Northern Ireland, Oliver now lives and creates art in Brooklyn, New York.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Praise for ONCE UPON AN ALPHABET:

An Amazon Best Book of 2014!

A Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year!

A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year!

• "The silly, spare, slightly surreal text occasionally rhymes and endlessly surprises. An utterly delightful alphabet book."–Kirkus Review, starred review

• "With wry humor, equally droll ink illustrations, and a solid dose of alliteration, Jeffers creates delightful mini-narratives for each letter of the alphabet."–Publishers Weekly, starred review

* "An altogether stimulating, surprising, and satisfying reading experience."–School Library Journal, starred review

• "Whimsical, funny, occasionally tragic, and highly entertaining, this collection of (sometimes) interlocking tales is brilliantly inventive."–Horn Book, starred review

"Jeffers knows how to catch the attention of his young audience while challenging their imagination, intellect and vocabulary. This whimsical exploration of letters and language begs to be read over and over again."–BookPage

"Handsome, humorous and clad in bright tomato-red, [this] is the sort of book you may want to rush into the arms of imaginative, good-natured children between 4 and 10 years old. [T]his is no traditional abecedarian exercise.The stories are wonderfully varied, sometimes philosophical and often end surprisingly; the drawings are just as quirky and unpredictable."–The Wall Street Journal

"[W]itty from A to Z . . . no one would blame you for having a copy even if there are no kids in the house. Think of it as Edward Gorey for the preschool set — and their hip parents."–The Washington Post

From the B&N Reads Blog

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Editorial Reviews

★ 10/20/2014
With wry humor, equally droll ink illustrations, and a solid dose of alliteration, Jeffers (the Hueys series) creates delightful mini-narratives for each letter of the alphabet. In the B story, "Burning a Bridge," the antagonistic relationship between neighbors Bernard and Bob reaches a breaking point: "But Bob learned an important lesson that day" after he burns down the bridge separating their homes—and traps himself on Bernard's side. In addition to the rampant alliteration in the stories and poems ("Mary is made of matter./ So is her mother./ And her mother's moose"), Jeffers's illustrations are full of unnamed people and objects that correspond to each letter, providing opportunities for interactive reading. Grim touches appear here and there—because half of Helen's house fell into the sea, getting up on the wrong side of the bed proves disastrous—but the overall mood is one of playful mischief. One thing is certain: if Jeffers's determined problem-solving duo, Owl and Octopus—who pop up throughout, rescuing drowning cucumbers and recovering stolen x-ray glasses—don't get to headline future books of their own, it'll be downright criminal. Ages 3–5. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

★ 10/01/2014
Gr 1–4—Jeffers's empathic nature, evident from his sympathetic renderings of Drew Daywalt's beleaguered crayons in The Day the Crayons Quit (Philomel, 2013), here extends to the hardworking letters. This eccentric and entertaining anthology is introduced by an eloquent syllogism about the relationship of letters, words, and stories. While each four-page tale showcases a (seemingly) hand-drawn capital and lowercase letter, and many of the words—and unnamed objects—begin with the corresponding letter, this is not your mother's abecedarium. It is a framework for Jeffers's intriguing worldview, combining ludicrous juxtapositions and situations and a great capacity for gentleness. Some passages are scientific: "Mary is made of matter….she got sucked through a microscope and became the size of a molecule." The facing page shows Mary floating under the lens. The blackboard-style background is filled with "molecular" diagrams (mattresses, a moose, mums). Other sections are a mite macabre: "Jack Stack the Lumberjack has been struck by lightning one hundred and eleven times…." The lightning illuminates a skeleton, but after the page turn, the man appears in his jammies, normal, except that he can provide his own electricity. There is humor in the alliteration and mixed-media scenes: a puzzled parsnip, Victor the vanquished "plotting his vengeance," and an enigma featuring elephants and envelopes. The author respects his readers' intelligence, inserting expansive vocabulary, cameos from characters in previous books, people and plot threads that cross stories, and quiet details to discover in subsequent readings. An altogether stimulating, surprising, and satisfying reading experience.—Wendy Lukehart, District of Columbia Public Library

School Library Journal

★ 2014-08-12
This amazing "menagerie" presents an original story for all 26 letters of the alphabet. Opening with A, "An Astronaut" tells of astronaut-in-training Edmund, hampered by his fear of heights. "Cup in the Cupboard" for letter C relates the sad story of Cup, whose move from cupboard to windowsill ends disastrously. In "Danger Delilah," letter D introduces a fearless superheroine, while L's tale, "The Lumberjack's Light," stars Jack, struck by lightning so often he doesn't need a plug for his light. "An Enigma" for letter E asks "[h]ow many elephants can you fit inside an envelope," referring readers to letter N and "Nearly Nine Thousand" for the answer. In letter J's, "Jelly Door," Jemima makes her front door out of jelly to make retrieving forgotten keys easy, while in letter K's, "The King," a king forgets his keys. The 26 amusing ministories come full circle with letter Z's, "Zeppelin," in which astronaut Edmund returns aboard a zeppelin. The silly, spare, slightly surreal text occasionally rhymes and endlessly surprises. Jeffers introduces each letter and story title on a separate, colored page, featuring the letter in childlike lettering. Deceptively naïve pen, ink and watercolor illustrations in subdued blacks and grays on white backgrounds add to the overall whimsy. Reappearing visual elements provide intertextual humor. An utterly delightful alphabet book. (Picture book. 5-8)

Kirkus Reviews

Once Upon an Alphabet: Short Stories for All the Letters

Once Upon an Alphabet: Short Stories for All the Letters

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