ASL to zoology: Alphabet books from A to Z.

I searched our bookshelves and found that we own close to 30 alphabet books! I brought them into the living room and arranged 26 of them on the floor like this, each letter of the alphabet corresponding to a different alphabet book:

Here is my alphabet of alphabet books (sort of a meta-alphabet-book, if you will). I like all of these, but I have starred a few that I think are particularly good. (See letters B, I, J, L, S, T, and Z.) All titles are hyper-lined to their Amazon pages.

A is for American Sign Language.  The Handmade Alphabet, Laura Rankin.

The illustrations for this book are cleverly done! Each page shows a hand forming a letter of the alphabet using sign language, accompanied by something that starts with that letter. The C hand is holding a cup, the E hand is being erased from the page, etc.

★ B is for Beautiful Black and White Illustrations. Pigs from A to Z, Arthur Geisert.

This is one of the best alphabet books I've seen. The whimsical pictures tell the story of seven pig siblings who build an elaborate tree house and then go home for baths and bedtime. Geisert's illustrations are richly detailed, and the reader can hunt for several letter shapes hidden in the artwork on each page.

"S is for shingling." Notice the S's hidden in the picture. There is also an R and a T.

"W is for washing clothes in a wind-powered washing machine."

C is for Cultural Traditions of Africa.  Ashanti to Zulu: African Traditions, Lauren Musgrove, pictures by Leo and Diane Dillon.

The illustrators of this Caldecott winner are Diane Dillon and the late Leo Dillon, a husband-and-wife team who won numerous awards over the course of their long career, including two Caldecott medals. They shared a career and an interracial marriage, both of which began in the 1950s and lasted for more than half a century. Their Wikipedia article is here.


                                                           

D is for Doll. A is for Annabelle: A Doll's Alphabet, Tasha Tudor.

This book indulges the sensibilities of my my inner 5-year-old girl, who is in raptures over these illustrations.  Tasha Tudor lovingly depicts a dainty porcelain doll with an extravagant wardrobe of Victorian dresses and accessories.

  

 

E is for Elephants. ABC de Babar, Jean de Brunhoff.

Not to be confused with Babar's ABC by Laurent de Brunhoff (Jean's son), ABC de Babar was created for French speakers. Each wordless two-page spread depicts a scene packed with objects and activities beginning with the featured letter — if you write the words in French, that is. It's great for kids learning French, but some of the French words begin with the same letter as their English counterparts (e.g. montagne/mountain, orange/orange), so the book is fun for English speakers too.

 

F is for Flowers. Alison's Zinnia, Anita Lobel.

This book shows us 26 gorgeous flowers and 26 girls, each of whom receives a flower from the girl on the previous page and gives a flower, in turn, to the girl who comes next in the alphabet. Alison acquired an Amaryllis for Beryl. Beryl bought a Begonia for Crystal. Crystal cut a Chrysanthemum for Dawn. Etc.

 

                                  

  

 

G is for Garden. Pierrot's ABC Garden, Anita Lobel.

Here's another book by Anita Lobel, also featuring growing things, but with a different style of illustration. This one is a Little Golden Book. Pierrot, the traditional French character of pantomime, gathers things from his garden to take to his lovely Pierrette.

 

H is for History Lesson. A is for Abigail: An Almanac of Amazing American Women, Lynn Cheney and Robin Preiss Glasser.

This book is a delightful homage to the many women who have shaped our history. And yes, that's Lynn Cheney, wife of Dick Cheney. I scoured the book to see if I could find a politically conservative bias, but I didn't. (Let me know in the comments section if you have found otherwise.) 

   

★ I is for Ingenious. The Alphabet Room, Sara Pinto.

This one is excellent! Each letter marks a door that opens into a room. The first time we see the room, it is completely bare except for some apples. When we get to the B page, we see apples and bowls. On the C page, a cat joins the group. By the end of the book, we have a dog, an egg, a fish, and so on. The characters entertain us in new ways on each page: The dog tries on the jester's costume, the lamb eats the ivy, and everyone takes turns wearing the mustache. The painting on the wall, introduced on the P page, has its own character who changes positions and eventually drives out of the painting in his wagon. 

 

★ J is for Juicy. Eating the Alphabet: Fruits and Vegetables from A to Z, Lois Ehlert.

My three-year-old and I can't get enough of the luscious watercolor illustrations in this book that celebrates fruits and vegetables. My husband is less enthusiastic (his assessment: "slightly below average"), but if you are a fan of artistic depictions of food (as I am), then this book really delivers. The text throughout the book is minimal, but the illustrated glossary at the end gives information and pronunciation guides for each fruit and vegetable.

 

K is for Kid Favorite. Gyo Fujikawa's A to Z Picture Book, Gyo Fujikawa.

When I was a kid, this was my favorite alphabet book. I pored over the pictures and used tracing paper to copy my favorites. The B pages were my favorites, though J (which featured an entire two-page spread full of jumping children), D, and V were certainly contenders. Gyo Fujikawa was a pioneer in depicting children of many races and nationalities in her picture books.

★ L is for Lovely. A Flower Fairy Alphabet, Cicely Mary Barker.

Cicely Mary Barker's work is so very lovely. Each letter of the alphabet gets its own flower fairy and poem to go with it. (She couldn't think of flowers that start with U or X, so those fairies are drawn as little characters in plain clothes. The X Fairy is a little imp, teasing his neighbor, the Yellow Deadnettle Fairy.) How can you not love these fairies with their clothes drawn to look like specific flowers? Just look at the Nasturtium Fairy's adorable little outfit! And the Fuchsia Fairy's dress!

All of Barker's books are lovely. I particularly like Flower Fairies of the Autumn and Flower Fairies of the Trees, because of all the lovely things she does with nuts and seeds and leaves. Note: I don't actually own the alphabet book as a stand-alone. It's included in The Complete Book of Flower Fairies, which I do own. The disadvantage of that book is that not all of the illustrations are full-size.

 

M is for Marvelous Market. On Market Street, Arnold Lobel (author), Anita Lobel (illustrator).

This is the third Anita Lobel book in our alphabet of alphabet books, and it's also a well-deserved Caldecott Honor book. The merchants on Market Street are made out of the stuff they're selling. My kids are fascinated with these pictures.

 

  

N is for Nature. Discovering Nature's Alphabet, Kristina Castella and Bryan Boyl.

Nature photographs depict the forms of each letter.

 

O is for Old-Fashioned Alphabet Rhyme. A Apple Pie, Gennady Spirin.

Spirin takes a traditional English alphabet rhyme and puts his own delicious spin on it.

P is for Paper Engineering. Parading with Piglets, Biruta Hansen.

So clever! The chimpanzee claps, the frog blinks, the Dalmatian's spots appear and disappear. This one appears to be out of print, though it's still available used at a reasonable price.

 

 

Q is for Quirky. Once Upon an Alphabet: Short Stories for All the Letters, Oliver Jeffers.

For each letter, Jeffers gives us a very short story, some of which are interconnected in surprising ways. My favorite story is the one for the letter W. The ingenious inventor (whom we first met at the letter I) is back, and we are introduced to the Whiraffe, a creature with the body of a giraffe and a whisk for a head. Here he is, whipping cream.

 

R is for Roadsigns. Backseat AB-See, Maria van Lieshout.

The illustrations are bold and visually pleasing, but roadsigns aren't exactly my thing. This book is perfect for my three-year-old son, however, who has started to pick out letters (well, mostly just the letter E) on roadsigns during car rides.

 

★ S is for Seuss. Dr. Seuss's ABC, Dr. Seuss.

This book is so good that I actually have the whole thing memorized. Really. And I'm not even a Dr. Seuss enthusiast, generally speaking. But stick with the regular paper-pages-book, not the board book. The board book has altered the text significantly, ditching some of the wonderful rhythmic poetry.  For example, the board book cuts out this wonderful rhyme: "Many mumbling mice are making midnight music in the moonlight. Mighty nice," which I understand is used as a vocal warm-up in some circles. 

For me, this is the quintessential Dr. Seuss, much more so than The Cat in the Hat or Green Eggs and Ham. Itchy Ichabod, Silly Sammy Slick, Oscar's Only Ostrich, the Quick Queen of Quincy, and the Zizzer-Zazzer-Zuzz will forever be a part of my consciousness. 

★ T is for Three-Dimensional. ABC3D, Marion Bataille. 

This pop-up book is beautifully engineered. The S has wheels inside its curves that spin as you move the page. The V becomes a W when it's reflected in the shiny paper on the next page. It's really impressive.

U is for Unusual and Understated. Anno's Alphabet, Mitsumasa Anno.

Note that the line drawings in the borders depict plants and animals that correspond to the appropriate letter. 

V is for Vintage. Brian Wildsmith's ABC, Brian Wildsmith.

This book is from my husband's childhood. His mother kept it in good condition and gave it to us when we had our first child. It seems to be out of print, except as a board book.  I think that the illustrations are striking.

 

W is for Wildflowers. Wildflower ABC: An Alphabet of Potato Prints, Diana Pomeroy.

Potato prints of wildflowers.

X is for EXtra. Richard Scarry's ABC Word Book, Richard Scarry.

Putting this under X is a bit of a stretch, but I couldn't bring myself to leave out Richard Scarry's contribution to the alphabet book canon, and I had already used S for Seuss.

The Busytown folks are up to their usual antics in this original Richard Scarry book. Two things make this alphabet book unusual: 1) Each featured letter is printed in red, wherever it is found on the page, whether it's at the beginning of the word or somewhere in the middle. Somehow, that's very appealing to me. 2) The consonant digraphs Ch, Sh, and Th each get their own two-page spread. Smart.

Y is for Young Children Who Are Yawning. A to Z, Sandra Boynton.

This book is great for young children, especially when a short bedtime story would be strategically wise. The illustrations are attractive and fun, but they're simple enough that one can zip through the book quickly.

★ Z is for Zoological. Animalia, Graeme Base. 

Each letter gets a gorgeous page or two full of animals and other things that begin with the appropriate letter. And on each letter's page (or two-page spread) a boy with a striped shirt and glasses (but not Waldo) is hiding.

Add caption

Can you find the boy in the striped shirt? (Look out the window.)

Here he is.

 

From poopy to elbow in one day: Replacing the offensive with the merely annoying.

Around here, I'm celebrating any small parenting success I can get.

A few days ago, we achieved a minor improvement in our home life: I tricked my three-year-old into replacing poopy with elbow* as his go-to funny word. Ezekiel had been saying "poopy" all day, every day. It was his all-purpose joke, good for any occasion, guaranteed to produce results.

Ezekiel's philosophy of stand-up comedy went something like this:

In every sentence, replace one key word with the word "poopy." For example, instead of asking for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, say peanut butter and  . . . poopy. Hilarious, right? Alternatively, skip all the extra words and go for the essence of funny. Just say poopy repeatedly. Poopy, poopy, poopy. 

I had, on many occasions, very calmly and seriously told both children that we don't say that word unless we need to talk about using the bathroom. I had tried ignoring Ezekiel's gratuitous poopy jokes, knowing that what he most wanted from me was amusement or shock. I was a smart enough parent to know that if I mostly ignored his potty jokes, they would go away. But they didn't go away. As much as I tried to communicate boredom and matter-of-fact disapproval to my three-year-old, his older brother gave him more than enough attention to make up for it. Occasionally, Johnny would feign shocked indignation ("Mommy, Ezekiel just said poopy again!"), but most of the time his two-part response was hysterical laughter and delivery of his own poopy jokes.

Last week, I had the crazy idea that I would mimic their primitive brand of humor, but with a different, less offensive word. I tried elbow. As in, "Everyone, it's time to brush your elbows and go to bed," or, "Would you like some elbow in your oatmeal?"

I couldn't believe how well this worked. The boys found it so very, very funny. In my glee, I hammed it up, laughing loudly at any elbow joke they came up with on their own. They were thrilled. Mom was participating in their favorite kind of comedy routine! Elbow was the new poopy.

My boys have not uttered poopy, except as necessity requires, in nearly a week. They've said elbow, with great comic success, a hundred times. I'm praying that this will last, for a while at least. Is this new crop of jokes repetitive? Yes. Banal? Yes. At some point, I would like them to move beyond their primitive sense of humor. But for now, we've replaced the incessant offensive potty humor with something merely annoying. That's progress.

*Last night, it occurred to me that I should check an online Urban Slang dictionary in case elbow had a naughty slang meaning that I was not aware of. To my disappointment, I learned that it may be used to denote a pound of marijuana. Yikes! Had I known, I would have come up with a different poopy replacement. On a brighter note, I expect the elbow jokes to run their course long before my sons could get in serious trouble with their attempts at humor.

Trees of Greenbelt: Emphasis on bark (updated).

Lately, my husband Owen has been interested in identifying trees around Greenbelt after they've lost their leaves. He has learned a lot about the bark of some of the most common local trees.

Here is the poster he made, after carefully tracing and drawing images of bark. (The images of bark of the two pine trees and the maple are photographs, and the others are pencil drawings.) I think that it's beautiful! But we'd both be interested in any suggestions or corrections that you might have. Share them in the comments below.

Update: Owen has edited the poster, after thinking about one person's comment that the Virginia Pine bark looked more like Pitch Pine. He went back to the woods to take more photographs of Virginia Pine and Pitch Pine specimens, and he decided that he agreed with the commenter. The new version of the poster includes both species.

Here is a link to Google Drive, where you may view and download the full resolution file (about 28 MB).

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2B0e8nvmDLqQ0MxN3JXbXpYWGM/view?usp=sharing

If you would rather email me directly for the full resolution file, or a smaller file with fewer pixels, you are welcome to contact me at demosgen@gmail.com.


Owen has recently updated his earlier tree identification poster (emphasizing leaves) to include a more correct and complete discussion of pine needles. You can find that poster here.

The book recommendation shelves in our foyer.

Apparently, lots of people use Ikea spice racks as small, floating bookshelves. I thought that our family could use them to recommend books to visitors and to each other, so I bought a set of four on Amazon. The plan has worked wonderfully well.

We found a little bit of wall space in our foyer, near the staircase, that turned out to be perfect for our project. The new shelves are in a visible, high-traffic area, but they're not taking up space in the living room or dining room, where they might be more obtrusive.

Owen put clear, protective finish on the shelves, and then we hung them with anchored screws, spacing them 14 inches apart (from the bottom edge of one shelf to the bottom edge of the other). I printed out labels on card stock so that each shelf is designated for the book recommendations of one member of the family ("Owen's Recommendations," "Genvieve's Recommendations,"etc.). The card stock labels are, I hope, temporary. Eventually, I'd like to apply the letters directly onto the wood, through paint or other means.

Since Ezekiel is the youngest and shortest member of the family, he gets the shelf closest to the floor. Johnny's is just above his, then mine, and then my husband's. This way, small children have easy access to the books that are geared toward children, and adults can see at eye level the books that would interest them.


Here are my current recommendations:

All titles are hyper-linked to their respective pages on Amazon. Local friends, you're welcome to borrow any of these.

Way Below the Angels, Craig Harline.  Funny, painful, honest, and occasionally profound, this is the true story of one man's Mormon mission to Belgium in the 1970s. This should be on every Mormon's reading list.

The Story of the Blue Planet, Andri Snaer Magnason (translated from Icelandic by Julian Meldon D'Arcy). This has won several awards, including the Icelandic Literary Prize, which almost never goes to children's books. It's a middle grades chapter book, but I think that it has as much to offer adults as it does to children. This is an allegorical fable that entertains but also pricks the conscience. It's wonderfully disturbing and strange, yet somehow familiar at the same time. A planet is populated exclusively by children who live blissfully and simply, without any adult interference. When an adult arrives from outer space, bringing new opportunities for self-indulgence, the children must grapple with the greed, inequality, loss of innocence, and ecological impact that result.

And the terrific book peeking through from the back is The Elements: A Visual Exploration of Every Known Atom in the Universe, Theodore Gray.

Johnny's recommendations:

The Ark, Arthur Geisert; Sir Toby Jingle's Beastly Journey, Wallace Trip. The latter is a vintage Weekly Reader Book Club selection from 1976 that I picked up at a thrift store. Johnny is fascinated with it.

Ezekiel's recommendation:

I Love Trucks!, Philemon Sturges.


Owen's recommendations:

The Artistic Anatomy of Trees, Rex Vicat Cole.

Greenbelt (Images of America), Jill Parsons St. John and Megan Searing Young.

A low-fuss yet fully satisfying Lego birthday party.

Several days before Johnny's sixth birthday party, we decided that a Lego theme would be fun. There are dozens of ideas on the internet for Lego-themed decorations, party food, games, and favors, but I needed something that would be quick and easy to prepare. I decided to skip the decorations and fancy food and games.

Instead, we created a magical Lego country.

We covered our long dining room table with large pieces of white paper, taped together. We put out crayons, markers and other art supplies (but no paint). Kids who were more interested in art than in building drew the layout for our Lego land, with roads, rivers, trees, and other landscape elements. The paper was taped together on the underneath surface so that the tape wouldn't get in the way of the art.

Meanwhile, the entire living room floor was devoted to building structures that would go in our Lego country: houses, castles, cars. One boy specialized in spaceships. We do have a few official sets, but most of our Legos are miscellaneous pieces, which we keep in big tubs. The kids built whatever they wanted. The results of their labors may not have looked as impressive as the officially formulated buildings from Lego sets, but they were products of a free-form creative process.

Whenever a new structure was finished, the builder carried it to the dining room table and decided where it should go.

Since the dining room table had been transformed into a Lego land, I had to keep the food very simple. Finger food (string cheese, carrots, apple slices, etc.) was available on a kitchen counter. When we were ready for the "cake" we went out to our backyard picnic table and ate cupcakes that were bought at the supermarket and made by . . . Tastycake. The frosting on Tastycake cupcakes is not gooey, the way home-made frosting is, so there was very little mess. I didn't even provide plates or forks.

Party favors were used books — books that were weeded out from our bookshelves and some that were bought at a library book sale. Each guest got to choose one.

So the party turned out to be "Lego themed" in only the most basic sense: There were no Lego-shaped decorations or Lego-shaped food, or Lego party favors. But nobody seemed to mind, and I was pleased at the end of the day. A simple, yet satisfying party.

A parent's perspective on school reform and accountabilty.

Raphael, School of Athens (detail)

                               
When I was a high school math teacher, I kept an eye on the educational trends that influenced what happened in my classroom, and I had some pretty strong opinions about curriculum and policy. Now that I'm a stay-at-home mother of a child in public school, I am more concerned than ever about what's happening in the schools.

We live in Prince George's County —  the underdog of the Washington metro region —  and we want to stay here. We love our community. Though I'm pleased with the local elementary school our son attends, I am eager for the struggling schools in the county to improve. If Prince George's County is going to boost its reputation, the public schools must become a viable option for families who care about education.

But I am worried about the stories that I'm hearing from teachers.

The new teacher evaluation formula mandated by the state of Maryland heavily emphasizes both a data tracking requirement called Student Learning Objectives and, beginning in the 2016-2017 school year, standardized test scores. I am concerned that the increased emphasis on standardized testing comes at a high cost, not only in terms of dollars spent, but in time, energy, and morale. Moreover, the paperwork burden on teachers, as a result of a hyper-focus on data and high stakes testing, has become overwhelming.

One of my friends is considering leaving the teaching profession after her second year. She says that the time in the classroom is "awesome," but the paperwork and other aspects of dysfunction in the school district's bureaucracy may drive her away from teaching. Another teacher friend told me that she cries on her way home from work nearly every day. When I asked one highly regarded teacher about the amount of paperwork the county requires, she told me that the burden on teachers has become so great that she feels almost like she is in an abusive relationship that she needs to get out of. This is a woman who sparkles when she talks about reading and science and the kids in her class. This is exactly the kind of teacher we need to hold onto.

The more I hear from teachers, the greater my sense of urgency becomes. I don't want our best teachers to leave. I don't want them to burn out. I don't want our great teachers to become mediocre teachers, because the burdens of  mandatory data-tracking and test prep deplete their energy and passion. And while I acknowledge that we need a way to help our ineffective teachers improve or get them out of the classroom, I don't believe that these new accountability measures are the answer.

Prince George's County's version of the Student Learning Objectives requirement looks to me like nothing more than bureaucratic silliness: I can't see how it's going to help the lousy teachers get up to speed. And an increased emphasis on standardized testing is the wrong approach. When teachers turn their classrooms into test prep factories, they usually can get results in the short term (i.e. higher test scores), but what are the long-term costs of teaching to a test that measures a narrow set of skills? What kinds of learning and thinking will be emphasized, and what will be minimized? What kinds of experiences will students miss because their teacher's job depends on getting her students to do well on a standardized test?

This is not just a local problem: It is echoed in school districts around the country, as schools fall under the influence of the new corporate reformers and their allies in government. I fear for what's happening to our public schools.

I fear that the creativity and joy that happens in the classroom will erode, under the banner of accountability.  I worry that test preparation, data tracking, and paperwork will increasingly overshadow meaningful teaching — the kind of teaching that inspires kids and instills in them a love of learning. And that would be a shame. Because as demanding as it is to be a teacher or a learner, as exhausting as it is sometimes, I really believe that learning and teaching are inherently joyful activities. To learn something of substance — to wrestle with a new idea or master a difficult skill — is deeply satisfying. The best kind of learning challenges us and changes us — how we think, how we see the world, what we can do, what we can become. If that kind of learning is going to happen in the classroom, we must demand that our teachers be treated with respect. We must not allow new accountability measures, paperwork, and standardized testing to get in the way of a teacher's most important job. We need teachers who are fully engaged in the business of teaching.

Leaves of Greenbelt poster (updated).

My husband, Owen, has recently developed an interest in tree identification. He collected fall leaves in the Greenbelt North Woods, scanned them, printed out the images, and then traced the outlines and veins on tracing paper.

We did our best to identify the leaves, but if you have any corrections or suggestions, please let us know in the comments below. (Update 1: This version is edited to include the correct botanical name of the Chestnut Oak and some clarification on the Sugar Maple leaf. Update 2: This version has an updated discussion of pine needles, and the longer pine needles have now been identified Pitch Pine needles, instead of Loblolly Pine.)

If you're interested in receiving the full resolution version (5 MB) via email, let me know in the comments section.