Books like Curious George's ABCs

Title: Curious George’s ABCsAuthor: H.A. ReyIllustrator: H. A. ReyGenre: Alphabet Book, Concept BookTheme(s): Monkey, Alphabet, Curious George, AlliterationOpening line/sentence: “A is an Alligator with its mouth wide open” Brief Book Summary: Uppercase letters of the alphabet are represented as objects or animals, for instance “D is for Dinosaur”. Similarly, each letter blends in with the objects or animals it is describing, so the reader must look for the letter within the picture. This book also helps children learn about alliteration.Professional Recommendation/Review #1: Children’s Literature - Marilyn Courtot “Curious George has been around for quite a while now H.A. Rey’s work has been transformed into Curious George’s ABCs, a new board book. It is a whimsical offering with the capital letter incorporated into the animal or object depicted. Each time the letter appears in the text it is highlighted, and the text uses lots of words beginning with the featured letter – “F is a Fireman Fighting a Fire.”Professional Recommendation/Review #2: Karin Snelson – Children’s and YA Editor"A is an alligator with its mouth wide open, B is a big blue bird, C is a crab with two clamping claws...." You get the idea. It's never too early to get your babies chewing on books and ruminating on the alphabet, and children of all ages enjoy the company of H.A. Rey's intrepid monkey, Curious George. In this board book, the letter itself mimics the shape of the animal or object in question. The A is actually the gaping jaw of the alligator, the B is the head and body of the big blue bird, and so on. In most of the pictures--not-so-curiously, 26 in all--youngsters will delight in finding a tiny Curious George, just about to get into mischief, no doubt. Adult Curious George fans will get a kick out of sharing their long-time monkey friend with their favorite little chimps, and preschoolers will enjoy the comical illustrations that offer just the right amount of detail to keep things interesting.”Response to Two Professional Reviews: Both reviewers mention how appealing this book is when teaching children the ABCs. The intricate way that H.A. Rey’s incorporates the uppercase letters into the illustrations is very unique and appealing to children. This provides a fun way of learning for the children reading about the alphabet. Like most classics, Curious George is a book that all children enjoy, especially when learning new concepts.Evaluation of Literary Elements: The book uses bright and colorful illustrations to appeal to the young reader. The pictures have child friendly objects, animals and people that have a simplistic look to them. The style of the book is set up so all the uppercase letters are written in bold red font to stand out to the reader. The setting varies on every page as each letter describes a different object or animal. Lastly, the alliteration used in the book helps the reader pronounce each letter. Consideration of Instructional Application:After reading this book, I would write the upper case letters on toy cars and label different parts of the room with a word that has the uppercase letter in it. I would have the children drive the cars to the correct part of the room, so their letter matches the word. Another activity could be having the children try to sound out or spell out their names, and then see which uppercase letter is in each of their names. Then, you could trace their names lightly, so the children could write on top on it, as though they wrote their own name.