Book:  One Upon an Alphabet: Short Stories for all the Letters by Oliver Jeffers

Genre: Childrens, literature

Once Upon An Alphabet is a collection of short stories related to each letter.  Some of the stories are correlated, but most are not.

As a parent you might be able to imagine my horror at bedtime when I saw the thickness of the book Sophiapea selected and noticed that it was not a simple alphabet book (A… B… C…) but that it was a collection of short stories.  Not the words you want to see in those last five minutes of the witching hour before bedtime.  Of course, I prefaced the story-time with the words of warning, “We might not be able to read the whole book before bed tonight,” but once we started reading there really was no need.

The stories were brilliant and short.  They were so funny and strangely morbid that several times I busted up laughing on my own.  Honestly, I don’t think Sophia understood the humor, but she liked it well enough and enjoyed pointing out the letters and talking about the pictures.  Best of both worlds, in my opinion.  Great for the parent and great for the kid.

If you have a toddler or preschool age child, who is working on learning letters, this is a fun, educational addition to your reading repertoire.  It’s definitely one that I’m going to add to my list of books to buy for my own home library and schooling resource!

My rating: 5 out of 5 stars