"An M is an N with a cane for support.
An N is a Z doing push-ups for sport."
Once they have figured out just how true that is, readers will want to move quickly backward and forward to see what else Chris Harris and Dan Santat have in store for them. Playful and witty, this is another wonderful addition to your collection of alphabet books. I am continually intrigued by the many new and entertaining ways authors and illustrators find to present these 26 letters that have such power.
As the reader moves onward from the letter a, they are helped to discover the many ways that one letter favors another, as is shown in the examples above. Poetic verses open and close the book. Chris Harris first asks if the alphabet might be a family just as readers are part of a family that shares some similarities.
"We all look like family, so could it be true ...
The alphabet's really a family too?
For all of the letters - from A on through Z -
Can look like each other in some way, to me ... "
The rhyming pairs that describe each of the letters are fun to read and are presented in order. Each is then identified with the other letter that is shown to prove the way each relates to the other. Leave it to the incomparable Dan Santat to thoroughly prove that premise with zany illustrations sure to capture attention and tickle the funny bone. He matches the settings to the description with panache and clever placement. It's all in the details as so often happens with his fabulous artwork. Endpapers help early readers with arrows to show the way to forming the letters carefully and accurately. Once done, the back endpaper invites readers to decode a secret message, using what they have learned and ensuring that the fun won't end too early.
The final verse offers this:
"Twenty-six letters, unique from each other ...
And yet, every letter looks just like another -
The same way that we are each special creations
And yet still resemble our friends and relations."
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