LMNO Peas

Starred review from March 22, 2010
Hundreds of animated green peas tumble through the alphabet in this refreshingly original book. The illustrations are full of vitality and good humor, and the rhyming text never misses a beat. Each large, pastel letter is accompanied by energetic peas introducing themselves (“We're acrobats, artists, and astronauts in space”). Most letters occupy a single page, but Baker combines some letters the way children repeating a just-learned alphabet often do. The peas are all small and round, but Baker (Just How Long Can a Long String Be?!
) gives them stick legs and arms, along with lively faces and costumes, to demonstrate his inventive view of each letter. To illustrate the letters H and I (“We're hikers, inventors, and investigators”), two peas climb a branch leaning on the H, a pea in a Sherlock Holmes hat tries to decipher footprints below, and a single pea with a light bulb above his head, smiles at his newly invented wheel that dots the letter I. Baker's after-the-Z surprise ending is a question for readers: “Now tell us, please... WHO ARE YOU?” Ages 3–7.

Starred review from March 1, 2010
PreS-Gr 1-Humble green peas provide inspiration in this hilarious, occupation-based romp through the alphabet. Four-inch-high letters on each page serve as an ingenious architectural platform around, above, and inside of which dozens of "pea-ple" swarm in joyful pursuit of myriad types of work. Bouncy, rhyming text introduces the alphabet peas as "acrobats, artists, and astronauts in space, builders, bathers, and bikers in a race," with unpaid "voters and volunteers" receiving their due, too. Baker's inventive details belie the "as alike as two peas in a pod" adage; each and every amusing personalized pea is as unique as a snowflakeand that's the point. The digitally rendered illustrations glow in vibrant, textured colors that boldly leap off the page against a background of ample white space. The sheer fun of the rhythmic text and the large alphabet letters work well for a read-aloud audience, but the busy, engaging details of the peas in their various worker modes are better suited for one-on-one exploration that young children will want to pore over again and again."Kathleen Finn, St. Francis Xavier School, Winooski, VT"

Copyright 2010 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 1, 2010
Preschool-G This cheerful alphabet book introduces each letter as a large, colorful shape surrounded by tiny pea creatures, green circles with arms, legs, eyes, mouths, and occasionally accessories such as hats, diving masks or flippers. The pea folk demonstrate occupations and actions beginning with each letter and identified in the rhyming, rhythmic text. The letters L, M, N, and O, which so often run meaninglessly together in the alphabet song, appear on the same double-page spread. Most of the other letters appear on their own pages or spreads, while the four pages devoted to the little characters own letter, P, illustrate the lines Were painters, / poets, / and plumbers fixing leaks. / Were pilots, / parachutists, / were peas and . . . / were unique. With its digital illustrations luminous colors, buoyant spirit, and engaging characters, this handsome picture book is definitely worth a second look, even in the overcrowded field of alphabet books.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)