Eating the Alphabet: Fruits and Vegetables from A to Z.

Eating the Alphabet: Fruits and Vegetables from A to Z. Lois Ehlert. San Diego: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1989. Illustrated, 32 pp., hardbound, $13.95.

Eating the Alphabet: Fruits and Vegetables from A to Z, features the collage and watercolor technique of author/illustrator Lois Ehlert. Targeted for the beginning reader, this book also includes a glossary, with pronunciations of all 26 of the subjects illustrated.

Carefully rendered paintings of birds and animals are featured in Bert Kitchen's Animal Alphabet. Each page is an aesthetic treat, with Koala Bears climbing up the letter K, and the tusk of a Rhinoceros impaling the R. The elegant Roman capitals in this visually rich picture-book will appeal to all ages.

Chris Van Allsburg's The Z Was Zapped is a visual drama in twenty-six acts, starring each letter of the alphabet and featuring marvelous associations between words and letters. Van Allsburg, the recipient of several Caldecott awards, once again displays his mastery of drawing media. This is a picture book beyond the expectations of illustration.

Suse MacDonald, another Caldecott award winner, views letter forms as opportunities for invention, extension and manipulation. Alphabetics features playful and creative adaptations of letters where an H evolves into a house and a K turns on its axis, adds a string and becomes airborne as a colorful kite. Recommended for children from pre-school through third grade--and adults of all ages!

From Letter to Letter allows the illustrator/ author Terri Sloat to incorporate colorful images within letters in one type style, and invent stimulating environments to surround letters representing a second type style. Her bright and cheerful images relate content, design and letterforms into a series of interesting illustrations with appeal for grades one through four.