Engaging alphabet books are perennial bestsellers with unlimited demand. As in their previous collaboration, the Woods bring lower-case letters to life in a fun adventure. Little x has left, upset he's hardly used, and the other letters set out to find him. They find x playing the castle xylophone for the mysterious Master, capital M, who threatens to turn them into alphabet soup! Some quick thinking by Little x saves the day, and soon they are all on their way home--just in time to make Mom's birthday surprise: a cake with Little x all over. He's the only one who stands for kisses!
In this follow-up to Alphabet Adventure, mother and son Woods again unleash young Charley's set of three-dimensional, lower-case letters on what is best described as a why-dunit. When the alphabet takes nightly roll call, something isn't right. Little x is missing, and the other 25 letters set off to track him down. They find him at the spooky castle of the ominously green Giant M (for Master) and discover that their comrade has become a captive but willing court musician ("tap-dancing a lullaby on a xylophone"). "I ran away because Charley never uses me," Little x whines. But when Little i (whose missing dot was the subject of the previous volume) explains Charley's plans for Little x in his mother's birthday surprise, the errant letter agrees to escape-a plan that turns out to be unnecessary, since the hulking M is really a big softie. Once again, Bruce Wood's super-saturated, digital pictures bubble with a playfully surreal sense of scale, volume and detailing, as he first shows the alphabet quaking in the shadow of M, then the Giant M blubbering-"I have a mother too"-as teardrops splash on the letters' surface. Whether the abecadarian cast is sailing to and from the castle on their pencil rocket, or picking out a present for Charley's mother from Giant M's treasure room (Little f picks a fan, Little n picks a necklace, etc.), every spread is letter-perfect. Ages 3-up. (Sept.) Copyright 2003 Publishers Weekly Used with permission.
School Library Journal
PreS-Gr 2-A story that invites participation and promotes letter recognition. When Little x disappears from Charley's Alphabet, the rest of the letters search for him, finding him in the castle of Master M. To their surprise, he does not want to be rescued, because he is useful there unlike at home, where Charley seldom uses him. When Master M awakes and threatens to use the letters in soup, Little x comes to the rescue and they all return home safely. There, Charley helps his dad decorate a birthday cake for his mother, and he uses Little x four times-because it is the only letter that stands for kisses. As in Alphabet Adventure (Scholastic, 2001), children will work on a skill necessary to begin reading as they enjoy the story and the bright, three-dimensional-looking digital illustrations filled with detail.-Margaret R. Tassia, Millersville University, PA Copyright 2003 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
To save to your personal wishlist and access other great Bookelicious features, including your bookmoji and reading log, please create an account or log in.
At Bookelicious, we feed kids’ passion for reading. Our professionally curated collection of great books plus our bookmoji-based book matching technology make it easy for kids to find books they truly want to read.
Motivating Kids to Read
Does your child like dogs or magic, superheroes or baseball? Bookelicious helps kids find books on topics they love. According to educators, more than 80% of children using Bookelicious find it easy to choose books they are motivated to read!
Making Reading Fun!
Bookelicious helps children explore their interests by choosing their favorite costumes, pets and accessories for their bookmojis. Based on these choices, we offer real-time, personalized book recommendations.
Really Great Books
At Bookelicious, we know what books children want to read because every one of our 17,000+ titles has been professionally curated by our team of librarians and teachers.