Alphabetland: the Beginning.

Alphabetland: The Beginning

Rick McAtee, author; Barbara Hammons, illustrator

Turning a New Page

4716 West Condor Drive, Tucson, AZ 85742

0976203006 $12.95 www.Turninganewpage.com

Written by a kindergarten teacher, Alphabetland: The Beginning is a children's picturebook that blends a lesson about the nature of consonants and vowels with a kid-friendly story about the letters of the alphabet building a town. Color illustrations depict the letters with anthropomorphic characteristics, as they go about their daily life; but the letters A, E, I, O, and U grow tired of the same daily routine and want to be different. The rest of the letters like staying the same. At last the wise letter Z devises a compromise: A, E, I, O, and U will have "long" and "short" forms, and will be called vowels because they Very Often Will Exchange Letter Sounds. The rest of the letters will be called consonants because they constantly are the same sound. The cheery story and whimsical pictures will capture the attention of young children who are just beginning to learn phonics.