Review by Booklist Review
PreS-Gr. 2. Like Laura Vaccaro Seeger's The Hidden Alphabet 0 BKL F 1 04, this ABC title combines clean, bold graphics with an optical game. Each brightly hued block letter appears on its own page within a box of artfully contrasting color, while a black background pops the complementary colors even more. The visual exercise comes with the lines of text that ring each page, forcing the reader to turn the book in a full counter-clockwise circle to follow the words. When viewed from the side or upside down, each letter forms abstract shapes in which the accompanying text tries to find something recognizable: a sideways Y0 becomes "a mermaid's tail," for example. The majority of what Ernst sees in the upended letters will be a far stretch for most kids (and even some adults). But preschoolers may use the book to learn their letters and find their own objects within the designs, while older children, including high-school art students, will enjoy the whimsy and optical challenge of finding new forms in the familiar shapes. --Gillian Engberg Copyright 2004 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Many alphabet books transform the 26 letters into people, places or things; Ernst (Stella Louella's Runaway Book), however, gives the idea a new twist-literally-by asking readers to rotate her exuberant book 360 degrees, to view each letter from four different perspectives. Working with cut paper, Ernst sets each blocky, sans serif, capital letter against a square field of fluorescent color; in the black border that frames the letters, the text encourages readers to examine the image from each of four angles (as it wraps around the page): "C pretends to be/ an angel's halo" (as readers turn the book to view the letter, bright yellow on an orange background, positioned so that its curve points up), "macaroni and cheese" (the upside-down "C") and a hoop earring (when it rests on its curve)." Not all the suggestions are compelling-O, for example, resembles a bagel no matter how one looks at it-and some youngsters may need coaxing to notice the conceits that depend on the interplay between the letter shape and its negative space (a lime-green N turned on its side looks like "two tortilla chips headed for guacamole" because the angled lines of the letter create two triangles from the yellow field). But children who are mastering both letter recognition and the mechanics of book-reading should get a kick out of how Ernst rewards them for tweaking the rules. Ages 3-6. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 2-Children who are tired of staid concept books will welcome this one-it literally turns the alphabet on its ear. Each page contains a large block letter enclosed in a square that, when viewed from a different direction-left, right, or upside-down (hence the title)-transforms into an entirely different object. For example, when "J" is rotated clockwise, it becomes, in turn, "an elephant's trunk," "a candy cane," and "a monkey's tail." Some designs, like "O," are easy to spot (bagel, owl's eye, fried egg); others, like "K" (picnic table, a mama duck with two ducklings, Martian's antennae) and "W" (two fish, a cat casting a shadow, a mountain stream), present more of a challenge. With touches of humor and a great deal of creativity, Ernst fashioned this book out of cut paper and surrounded each block with a thick black border that sets off white words. Children will enjoy tilting the pages to see the transformations and will be motivated to come up with ideas of their own.-Laurie Edwards, West Shore School District, Camp Hill, PA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
(Preschool, Primary) Using bold graphics, Ernst fashions an alphabet that's an exercise in visual imagination rather than in phonics and initial letters. Each broad, sans-serif letter fills a square of a sophisticatedly dissonant hue, which in turn is broadly bordered in shiny black on the square page. A single sentence, divided and printed to be read from the letter's four sides, invites readers to rotate the book and decode suggested interpretations: ""S becomes / a snipped curl, / a circular slide, / a caterpillar""; or, more inventively, ""K dreams of being / a picnic table, / a mama duck and two little ducklings, / a Martian's antennae."" A few of the suggestions are a bit of a stretch (how exactly is G, resting on its crosspiece, ""a magic wand casting a spell""?). But the overall effect is both handsome and intriguing; kids may well be inspired to pair basic forms with their own creative descriptions. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Ernst, known for funny watercolors and fractured fairy tales, makes a startling departure from her norm in this design-heavy alphabet book. As the title promises, readers will be rotating the book to see how the brightly colored cut-paper letters change with each 90-degree turn. Each letter is set into a black-bordered square against a harmonizing negative space; the hand-lettered text appears in white, turning as needed along the border. The narrative itself imagines the secret lives the letters yearn for, as "B masquerades as / a pair of goggles, / half a butterfly, / two windows in a castle tower." On any given page, the image may be created by the letter itself or by the negative space surrounding it, so the interstices between the legs of an E become an electric plug, or (in a moment of great inspiration) the yellow triangles formed by a green N become "two tortilla chips headed for guacamole." The act of turning the book 104 times in all (4 X 26) can become tedious, but the novel concept freshens up the canon of abecedaries. (Picture book. 4-8) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
