An Annoying ABC

Starred review from July 25, 2011
Anyone who thinks life is a breeze for abecedarians should check out this knowing and very funny primer from Bottner and Emberley, whose previous pairing resulted in the wonderful Miss Brooks Loves Books! (And I Don't). The book describes, in alphabetical order, a chain reaction of unpleasant and unfortunate behavior. "It was a quiet morning until... Adelaide annoyed Bailey. Bailey blamed Clyde. Clyde cried. Dexter drooled on Eloise. Eloise elbowed Flora," and so on until the action comes full circle with Zelda, pushed to the edge by a clumsy Yves, "zap" Adelaide with a hose. Is there any hope for this living alphabet of woe? Yes, thanks to Miss Mabel, the savvy, supportive teacher whose name puts her smack in the middle of it all. Expertly implementing a chain of apologies, Miss Mabel achieves the classroom equivalent of a State Department peace accord: a tranquil story hour (the featured book is Miss Brooks). Bottner's deadpan, minimalist text inspires Emberley to some terrific portraits in extremisâthis isn't just an alphabet book, it's an encyclopedia of kindergarten deportment, from aggression to zealotry. Ages 2â6.

Starred review from August 15, 2011

What's annoying? Adelaide annoys Bailey when she runs at him wearing her tiger costume, scaring him and causing him to let the gerbil out of its cage.

So begins a rollicking preschool/early-elementary romp featuring kids who appear in alphabetical order with a corresponding action as Adelaide sets off a domino effect. "Bailey blamed Clyde. / Clyde cried. / Dexter drooled on Eloise. / Eloise elbowed Flora. / Flora fumed." The pandemonium that ensues is a clever visual narrative loaded with details, such as the gerbil-escape subplot. The hilarity lies in the illustrations, typical Emberley style, done in mechanical pencil and watercolors. Children (and Miss Mabel, the teacher) in the alphabetical spotlight are rendered in full color, while the other characters are in black and white against colored backgrounds. The kids sport a variety of skin colors, hairdos and clothing, with one girl (Ida) in a wheelchair. How does the mayhem resolve? When Zelda zaps Adelaide with the water hose, Adelaide, as instigator, apologizes, and so does everyone else. For the trickier letters, Q is Quentin; X is Xavier; Y is Yves. One read-through will simply not be enough to enjoy all the fun. This would make a splendid project for a classroom to make up their own alphabetical list of names.

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

Starred review from October 1, 2011

PreS-Gr 1-Miss Mabel's class roll includes an alphabetical assortment of children's names. Readers meet each child in consecutive order, unfortunately engaged in a domino effect of unneighborly behavior. "It was a quiet morning until... Adelaide annoyed Bailey. Bailey blamed Clyde. Clyde cried. Dexter drooled on Eloise. Eloise elbowed Flora. Flora fumed," etc. The great chain of misbehavior culminates in Adelaide's head-to-toe soaking, having been "zapped" by Zelda with a hose. Everyone is astonished, and, finally, everyone apologizes. Emberley keeps the action rolling along with his horizontal chain of charismatic youngsters, set against long white pages and illustrated in his sketchlike pencil-and-watercolor style. He has a knack for portraying each child's emotion in all its precocious intensity. Touches of whimsy, such as Adelaide's tiger costume and Miss Mabel's floral tank top over cargo shorts over polka-dot leggings ensemble, keep the whole crew endearing despite the chaos. Each letter is highlighted by a colored box, but a swiftly moving narrative that practically demands the insertion of a few sound effects during read-aloud broadens the appeal of this ABC beyond mere concept book. While storytime audiences will appreciate this well-paced tale, individual children may wish to slow down and take a closer look at Emberley's spunky classmates than a large group reading would allow. Fortunately, the whole effect is much more pleasing than annoying.-Jayne Damron, Farmington Community Library, MI

Copyright 2011 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 15, 2011
Preschool-G It was a quiet morning until . . . / Adelaide annoyed Bailey. / Bailey blamed Clyde . . . The result is a chain reaction of trouble that eventually reaches everyone in Miss Mabel's class, from Adelaide to Zelda. Then, with a fine sense of justice (not to mention the garden hose), Zelda zaps Adelaide out on the playground. Soon every classmate is drenched, but Miss Mabel steps in with towels and good sense. At her teacher's urging, Adelaide apologizes to Bailey, who apologizes to Clyde, beginning a chain reaction that restores harmony to the class. The opening endpapers and pages feature the children quietly walking into school in line, with their names (and the appropriate letters of the alphabet) appearing in order. The book ends on a more boisterous line of kids cavorting as they leave school, with appropriate but now out-of-order letters above their heads. While the story's concept may not be entirely new, the text and especially the expressive pencil-and-watercolor illustrations are fresh, engaging, and wonderfully amusing.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)