Capital!: Washington D.C. from A to Z

by Laura Krauss Melmed, Frane Lessac (Illustrator)

Overview

Welcome to our nation's Capital, home of American government, world-renowned museums, and famous memorials and monuments. Visit Apollo 11 at the Air and Space Museum, find out how Bills are printed at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, and visit the Capitol Building and see where Congress meets, in this alphabetical tour from best-selling author Laura Krauss Melmed.

Fascinating facts about historic people and places complement Melmed's lively, informative verse, and Frané Lessac captures the unique brilliance of the city with her detailed, accessible, folk-style artwork.

Author Biography: Laura Krauss Melmed grew up in New York City, where the library was one of her favorite places. I was always staggering home with giant armloads of books, she says, and I must have read every fairytale book there was.The red one, the blue one, the green one all of them.

Laura s first book, The Rainbabies, with illustrations by Jim LaMarche, was published to critical acclaim in 1992. Her second book, The First Song Ever Sung, with illustrations by Ed Young, was published in 1993. I Love You As Much , with illustrations by Henri Sorensen,is her third book. She lives in Washington, D.C., with her husband and their three children.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780688175610
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	12/05/2002
Pages:	48
Product dimensions:	9.00(w) x 11.00(h) x 0.25(d)
Lexile:	AD960L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Laura Krauss Melmed is author of Capital! Washington D.C. from A to Z and New York, New York! The Big Apple from A to Z, also illustrated by Frané Lessac; I Love You As Much . . . , illustrated by Henri Sorensen; and the critically acclaimed The Rainbabies, illustrated by Jim LaMarche. She lives with her husband in Washington, D.C.

Frané Lessac is an American who has traveled all over the world. She now lives in Fremantle, Australia, but always looks forward to visiting Texas with her family. To bring the Lone Star State to life with gouache paints, Frané did extensive research using a video camera, a still camera, and actual and virtual tours. She is the illustrator of more than thirty books for children, including Capital! Washington D.C. from A to Z and New York, New York! The Big Apple from A to Z, both by Laura Krauss Melmed.

Editorial Reviews

Vibrant gouache paintings with a folk-art look dominate this alphabetical tour of our nation’s capital.

Booklist

For real and armchair tourists alike, this alphabet book is a lively intro to the District.

San Francisco Chronicle

An unforgettable, read-aloud delight about one of the most visited cities in America.

Brooklyn Family

An alphabetic celebration of the various sights and attractions of Washington, D.C., falls victim to a fuzzy definition of its audience. Melmed (Fright Night Flight, p. 1229, etc.) tidily organizes the capital from A (Air and Space Museum) to Z (National Zoo), describing each attraction in rhyming couplets and further explicating specific features in teeny prose print. Thus F is accompanied by both "Who searches for the Ten Most Wanted / And faces terrorists, undaunted? / Who’ll ambush the most clever spy / or solve a crime? The FBI!" and "Forensic scientists at the FBI can enlarge fingerprints found at a crime scene and search through their computer data banks to find a match." Lessac’s (On the Same Day in March, not reviewed, etc.) cheery folk-arty illustrations present thumbnail details with as much energy as broad landscapes teeming with happy multiethnic throngs. The illustrations work well with the prose explications, and the level of detail provided by both will delight older children who can get past the young-seeming format and who have the background necessary to provide historical/civic context. But the verse, which never rises above the level of doggerel, is way out of sync with the prose. It insults the readers who would be captivated by the prose and frequently fails to illuminate sufficiently its subjects for younger children. An attractive package that tries to be too many things to too many people. (Picture book. 6-8)

Kirkus Reviews