The Alphabet Book

Two dogs who are opposite in every way are also the best of friends. The bold, colorful drawings are appealing and emphasize the concepts of size, color, and opposites.

When a strange egg appears in their nest, Mr. and Mrs. Bird kindly take it upon themselves to raise the “baby bird” inside. But when the egg hatches, the Birds are in for a big surprise – “Junior” is the oddest-looking baby bird they’ve ever seen – with big, long jaws full of teeth and an appetite to match. In fact, he looks more like a baby alligator than a baby bird! Nevertheless, the devoted Birds run themselves ragged feeding Junior until he gets so big, he must leave the nest or it will collapse underneath him. But how can Junior fly without wings? To the delight of the Birds – and readers! – the dilemma is solved when Junior takes off from a branch overlooking a pond.

When Sam, the owl, teaches Gus, the firefly, to write words in the sky, cars crash, movies are free, and hot dogs are cold.

Mr. and Mrs. Bird’s search for a “better” nest leads them to some peculiar spots.

A decades-old dictionary that you can still use today (and know that children will love it) is an amazing testament to the genius of the Seuss stable. The roughly 12-per-page colored drawings are dated, of course – the humans far more than the animals, funnily enough – but they’ve aged in a way that adds to their charm rather than detracting from it. (Phonograph may take some explaining; ditto typewriter.) The 1,350 words are well balanced between the obvious stuff – common nouns and verbs – and more abstract language, from about to yet. Each word is accompanied by a drawing and an illustrative sentence. Along the way, naturally, we meet a wacky menagerie of humans and animals.

It’s 8:00 a.m. and Ted is waking up. Not Fred! He’s going to snooze a little bit longer. Kids will love moving the hands on this sturdy clock book as they follow P. D. Eastman’s dynamic dog duo throughout their day. Learning to tell time has never been so much fun!