The Alphabet From A to Y With Bonus Letter Z (by Steve Martin and Roz Chast)

photo by jetheriot www.flickr.com

Reviewed by Margo Dill, www.margodill.com, margodll@aol.com

picture book for pre-k through 5th grades(Older elementary kids will LOVE the humor!)
the English alphabet letters as main characters
Rating: This is one of the funniest, cleverest (is that even a word?) ABC books I’ve seen in a long time.

Short, short summary: Actor and comedian Steve Martin and cartoonist Roz Chast have created a delightfully original ABC book, in my honest opinion. While I was reading it, I was reminded of the silliness of Dr. Seuss. Here’s letter A: “Amiable Amy, Alice and Andie ate all the anchovy sandwiches handy.” and Z: “Zany Zero zoomed to the end zone, But with a zucchini, scoring him zero.” Okay, so as adults, we might be thinking, “WHAT?” But kids love this stuff. It’s silly and goofy and uses different words for the letters than what we are used to seeing. For A–aren’t you used to reading apple or aardvark? For Z–zebra, for sure. The illustrations are hilarious and FULL of pictures of things that start with each featured letter. Kids of all ages, even adults, will smile while reading this book! Just look at the title–”Bonus letter Z”–I love it!

So, what do I do with this book?

1. Have fun with it. Ask students to count how many things in the different illustrations they come up with that start with the featured letter. Have them make a list of the words, and ask them to spell them correctly (this would be for older elementary students.) For younger elementary students or preschool students, you can make a list on chart paper with the children.

2. Can your students come up with any more words that start with the featured letter on each page that Steve Martin and Roz Chast didn’t already think of? When your students think of one, ask them to describe (either in writing or orally) how they would either fit their words into the rhymes or the illustrations.

3. This is a great book to study word choice, one of the six traits of writing. Martin uses unusual word choice in this book. Ask your students to find an adjective. Then ask your students to try and use that adjective in their writings. Do the same for a specific noun and a strong action verb. See if your students can learn some new words from this picture book, and use them in their own stories and poems.

If you have used this book with your students or your children, please leave a comment here and let us know how it went. If you have an idea of a book for me to read and review, please leave a comment here or email me at margodll@aol.com