Anne’s Five Best Alphabet Books

A is for abound, which is what alphabet books do.  A is also for Amazon, which has a nearly uncountable number on offer.  But, how many alphabet books does the world really need?  A hundred?  A thousand?  More?  Not even Google has the answer to this question.  The fact is that alphabet books have been with us for centuries and there seems to be no end to the number of variations this theme has produced.  It’s no wonder!  Learning the alphabet is the first essential step to literacy and every little learner needs a primer that stimulates his or her imagination and vocabulary.

The need to teach children to read and write is as old as writing itself.  The oldest “published” alphabet book is Thomas Petyt’s The BAC Bothe in Latyn and in Englysshe (1538), according to Wikipedia. I suspect that there must have been others prior to this that did not survive and which are lost to history forever. Somewhere there’s a cuneiform primer, or a hieroglyphic scroll of essential glyphs which may yet be discovered.

Children of early settlers to Ohio, where I grew up, used a horn book to learn their letters and rudimentary phonics. A hornbook was a hand-held piece of wood that looked somewhat like a paddle with a piece of parchment with writing that was protected with a thin cover of horn. I have one such hornbook in my possession.  It’s a replica, but an old one, almost an antique itself. This belonged to my grandmother before it passed to me.

You can buy a handmade hornbook here. http://www.patriothorns.com/hornbooks

As you can see, this is a bare bone teaching tool.  But, in the hands of a good teacher and an eager student, it sufficed. Hornbooks were used in England and America for quite a long period of time beginning in the 1400’s.  It is possible that the likes of William Shakespeare and many other great writers and thinkers learned the alphabet with one of these.  Hard to imagine, isn’t it in these days of the internet?

As a child, I remember having only one alphabet book which I loved and returned to it often, long after I had mastered my letters. It had very simple yet elegant woodcut art. I’m sure I still have it, but it must be packed away in a box in the basement. It’s a treasure I would never part with.

One of the most popular alphabet books of the last 30 years, possibly of all time, has to be CHICKA-CHICKA BOOM BOOM. You must know it.  Everybody does.  Who can resist its catchy rhyme and bold bright illustrations?  It’s been a staple in homes and classrooms around the globe.

I have an interesting behind the scenes story to tell about this book. The original chicka text was for a short selection in a reader published in the 1980’s by Silver Burdett & Ginn. My mother, Mary Jane Martin, was the managing editor at Kirchoff/Wohlberg a New York firm that “packaged” the readers. Bill Martin Jr. had worked with my mother on a previous project and they were fairly chummy. She called him to see if he’d be willing to write a selection for the series and he obliged. Over multiple phone calls spanning the following week Bill and John Archambault took turns dictating the text to my mother. I got to listen to most of the conversations and countless iterations of the story. (I was a contributing writer and so was “in the room”!)  It was an amazing lesson in creativity and the necessary editorial process that even the likes of Bill and John were subject to.  They crafted the text changing word after word until it was perfect.  Lois Ehlert who was represented by Libby Ford at Kirchoff/Wohlberg at the time, was asked to do the art.  It was a magic marriage!

Kids loved it!  So much so, that the selection was expanded into a full book and published by Simon & Schuster in 1989. The rest is history. It's still a smash success after all these years and is used all over the world to learn their letters. I'm telling this tale as a tribute to my mother’s participation in this legendary children's book. She got the ball rolling. If you don’t own this book, it is a must if you have little children or grandchildren.  It’s available in every possible format.  Click on this link to investigate! https://amzn.to/2OcfYXa

 I’ll brag a bit more about my mother who was a writer as well as an outstanding editor. She wrote her own alphabet book that was first part of an educational program, and then offered as a trade book. It’s called FROM ANNE TO ZACH and was published by Boyd’s Mill Press in 1996 and illustrated by Michael Grejniec. It was published in French, by Bilboquet in 1998.

In this book-in-rhyme, children learn the letters of the alphabet through other children's names. The boys and girls depicted in the illustrations represent a rainbow of ethnicity.  So, it’s a nice book to use to encourage inclusion. In this book-in-rhyme, children learn the letters of the alphabet through other children's names. The boys and girls depicted in the illustrations represent a rainbow of ethnicity.  So, it’s a nice book to use to encourage inclusion.

From Anne to Zach

 It’s still possible to find a copy of this book on Amazon. https://amzn.to/3gFrZ3J

I have also written a mess-o-alphabet books, of which two have been published. The first is PIGNIC, illustrated by Rosekrans Hoffman and published by Boyd’s Mill Press in 1996. A book-in-rhymes where alphabetical pigs take alphabetical food to a “pignic”. The illustrations are wild, but wonderful with lots of kooky details. The book is still available in varying states of prior use. https://amzn.to/2ZPJNSV.

I have made a read-aloud video on YouTube for parents and teachers to use in these trying times. For homeschooling and bedtime reading. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pfZcEn_urA

The second alphabet book is ALPHABET FIESTA, which is a bilingual alphabet book in English and Spanish. Animals travel in alphabetical order to a birthday party bearing alphabetical gifts!  Almost all the names and items begin with the same letter in both languages.
My husband, who is Cuban, helped with the Spanish translation and my children and others school children here in Spain did the illustrations.  It was originally published by Turtle Books, but has been reissued by me on Amazon as a paperback. https://amzn.to/2Z9Spou

There are, of course, hundreds and hundreds of other alphabet books to choose from. But, be sure that there is at least one in your library. A good alphabet book always comes in handy.