ABC Books for Early Readers

ABC books have come a long way. Preschoolers groove and grow with these delicate and meaty hors d'oeuvres.

C Is for Curious: An ABC of Feelings
Ages: 2 - 5 yrs.
Author: Woodleigh Marx Hubbard
Chronicle Books, $13.95 (Hardcover)

Raging dragons, leaping cows, and baseball-playing dogs come together in this zany collection that explores every feeling from A(ngry) to Z(ealous). Children will delight in guessing each emotion and in letting their imaginations run free as they make up stories to go along with each picture.

A Gardener's Alphabet
Ages: 4 yrs. - Up
Author: Mary Azarian
Houghton Mifflin, $16.00 (Hardcover)

A master of the hand-colored woodcut, artist Mary Azarian shares with the viewer (of any age) her love of gardens - both vegetable and flower - and the work and joy that goes into their cultivation. Though there are appropriate words for each letter, it is the lovingly detailed pictures that reward our close attention.

The Handmade Alphabet
Ages: 4 - 6 yrs.
Author: Laura Rankin
Puffin, $6.99 (Paperback)

This imaginative, beautifully illustrated book presents the signing alphabet with astonishing clarity. Each drawing depicts the correct position and hand motions for the manual alphabet.

From Acorn to Zoo
Ages: 4 - 8 yrs.
Author: Satoshi Kitamuras
Sunburst (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), $4.95 (Paperback)

From Acorn to Zoo and Everything in Between in Alphabetical Order is newfangled fun - every person, animal, and object illustrated has a slightly quizzical expression and there's a bright off-center question on every page.

Agent A to Agent Z
Ages: 4 - 8 yrs.
Author: Andy Rash
Scholastic/Arthur A. Levine Books, $16.95 (Hardcover)

The author has taken the cagey step of involving young readers in a spy mission that can only be solved by becoming a better and more discriminating reader. The lead Spy in the book is dispatched to find a missing Agent who does not use his or her assigned letter. On the way, we meet all the other agents and the interesting espionage activities they engage in with words and great humor.

An Edward Lear Alphabet
Ages: 4 - 8 yrs.
Author: Edward Lear, Illustrator: Vladimir Radunsky
Harpercollins, $14.99 (Hardcover)

Illustrator Vladimir Radunsky has given the inspired nonsense-verse of Edward Lear a modern look and feel through collage and his own illustrations. Early readers are sure to enjoy the Lear's alliterations in phrases such as "F was once a little fish, Fishy Wishy Squishy Fishy in a dishy Little fish."

Alphabet RiddlesAges: 5 - 7 yrs.
Author: Susan Royce, Illustrator: Doug DuBosque
Peel Productions, $13.95 (Hardcover)

This is a pure delight - an intelligent, engaging collection of 26 alphabet riddles for children who already know the letters of the alphabet per se. The listener (or beginning reader) is given the first and last letter of a familiar word and then provided with a quartet of felicitously rhymed clues. Adults as well as children will be inspired to join in the fun.