On the second day of school, I met a kindergartener who
didn’t know his name. It wasn’t that he
couldn’t spell his name; he didn’t know his first or last name. When I asked, he said, “Tito,” but Tito is a
term of endearment. It wouldn’t be the
name he was registered under.
Eventually, we determined that his name was Alejandro and got him to the
correct classroom. (We do this by asking
the older children on the bus if they know this kid. Believe it or not, this happens often enough
that there is procedure in place to fix it.)
I’ve been teaching in Title 1 schools for 13 years, and I still can’t
get used to the fact that our kindergartners come to school so ill
prepared. Alejandro probably doesn’t
know the alphabet and has minimal experience with books. School is going to be much harder for him,
than for my friend’s son. When I told
Peyton that the best part of kindergarten was learning to read, he responded,
“I already know how to read.” I checked
back in on Alejandro last week, and it turns out he’s a bright kid and is learning
like a sponge. Unfortunately, statistics
show that Peyton and Alejandro’s different experiences in their first 5
years will likely follow them for life.
That’s scary fact, and one that could have been remedied with a couple
of books, particularly ABC books. 
ABC books are the prefect educational tool. Besides teaching the alphabet, they teach
phonics, vocabulary, and concepts about print; and the best ones are
entertaining too. Some of my favorites
are Click Clack, Quackity Quack by Doreen Cronin, B is for Bear
by Roger Priddy and Eric Carle’s ABC.
Truly any ABC book is good, but some are better than others. Look for lower case letters and words with
clear beginning letter sounds, not blends.
D should be for dog, not drum, s for sun, not snake. For kids who are just learning their letter
sounds, blends are confusing. I also
like short vowels sounds, but I’m happy as long as the vowels sounds aren’t
complex. Look for a is for apple, not aardvark,
and o is for octopus, not owl. With c
and g, we want hard sounds; c is for cat, not circle and g is for golf, not
giraffe. I’ve never found a perfect
alphabet book, but these rules guide me towards the better ones. Andrew Zuckerman’s Creature ABC has
great photos of animals and both the uppercase and lowercase letters. It does use elephant for e. It’s not my favorite example, because
elephant sounds like it starts with l. Black
and White Rabbit’s ABC by Alan Baker is also an excellent choice. Along with being an alphabet book, it also
tells the story as Rabbit paints a picture.
ABC books are not just for little kids either. There are some clever ones that big kids will
enjoy as well. Most elementary kids need
to continue practicing alphabetical order even after kindergarten. I love Q is for Duck by Mary Elting
(because ducks quack). My fourth graders
devoured the riddles in the book. Jerry
Pallotta has a series of animal ABC books that focus on ocean animals, mammals,
insects, etc. They tend to be difficult
reads, but they are full of interesting animal facts. Some alphabet books have beautiful pictures,
and can be enjoyed by kids of any age. The
Handmade Alphabet by Laura Rankin, teaches the American Sign Language
alphabet. Alphabet City by
Stephen Johnson finds the letters of the alphabet in common city sights, and
Chris VanAllsburg created a dramatic story for each letter in his detailed
illustrations of The Z was Zapped.
When it comes down to it, no matter what words the author chooses for a
letter, an ABC book is always a good choice. 
Click Clack, Quackity Quack by Doreen Cronin
B is for Bear by Roger Priddy
Eric Carle’s ABC by Eric Carle
Creature ABC by Andrew Zuckerman
Black and White Rabbit’s ABC by Alan Baker
Q is for Duck by Mary Elting
The Underwater Alphabet Book by Jerry Pallotta
The Icky Bug Alphabet Book by Jerry Pallotta
The Bird Alphabet Book by Jerry Pallotta
The Handmade Alphabet by Laura Rankin
The Z was Zapped by Chris VanAllsburg
The Crazy Alphabet by Lynn Cox
The Cow is Mooing Anyhow by Laura Geringer
Dr. Suess’s ABC by Dr. SuessZ is for Moose by Kelly Bingham
I had to add another title to the list. Yesterday in a book store I discovered Z is for Moose. Zebra is writing an ABC book and Moose desperately wants to be in it. He waits with few interruptions through the first half of the book, but when Zebra decides to go with Mouse for M, Moose is devastated and wreaks havoc on the rest of the alphabet. The book has very little text and great illustrations.
ReplyDeleteThanks - this is really helpful! My 18 month old is really into books right now and I've been overwhelmed by all his alphabet books. Some have one pic per letter (dog), some have 10 pics per page (dog, drum, daffodil, dress, etc). With the multiple, I've been picking and choosing one or two to point out each time we read. But it sounds like some of them might be better to point out than others at this point. Thanks again!
ReplyDeleteHeather (I work with Dragos)