Stories are made of words and words are made of the alphabet. What if there was a special story for each letter of the alphabet?
That’s the premise of this zany, wonderful book, Once Upon an Alphabet, by Oliver Jeffers.
My father bought the book for me some three years ago, or so I understand. And he forgot to give it to me. My mother and my sister just assumed that I had seen it and left it there because I’m not a hoarder, because I didn’t want to take it right away, because … because.
But the truth is that I didn’t know of its existence until last week, when I brought it home and devoured it.
What a fun, grand book it is! I gasped at the genius of it, chortled at the fun and rolled my eyes at the silliness. And I loved every page. This kind of writing comes from brilliance that’s at an altogether different level.
A is for astronaut, for instance. But Edmund, who wants to be an astronaut, is scared of heights. And space is three hundred and twenty-eight thousand four hundred and sixteen feet above him. Anything above three feet is too high, so he has a long way to go. Another three hundred and twenty-eight thousand four hundred and thirteen feet, to be accurate.
Page after page of brilliant madness made my jaw drop.
How many elephants can fit in an envelope? Can a nun give you the answer to that? What do an owl and an octopus do together? And what can an ingenious inventor make?
Once Upon an Alphabet will tell you.
| Title | Once Upon an Alphabet |
| Author | Oliver Jeffers |
| Tags | Picture Book, Alphabet |
| Rating (out of 5) | 5 |
| Age-group | 6+ |
Leave a Reply