The Horn Book Guide

PICTURE BOOKS

Ernst, Lisa Campbell

The Turn-Around, Upside-Down Alphabet Book

32 pp. | Simon | July, 2004 | Trade ISBN 0-689-85685-7 $$15.95

(2) K-3 In this bold, graphic alphabet, an exercise in visual imagination, each broad, sans-serif letter fills a square of a dissonant hue, which in turn is broadly bordered in black. One sentence, printed to be read from around the letter's four sides, invites readers to rotate the book and decode suggested interpretations: "S becomes / a snipped curl, / a circular slide, / a caterpillar." Handsome and intriguing.

Reviewer: Joanna Rudge Long | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2004