PICTURE A LETTER

An entrancingly designed alphabet book that will keep young (and old) peering at and poring over it for a long time. There are no words (except at the end), just the letters of the alphabet. Some get one page, some two, some share. For each, a detailed montage in grisaille is full of objects and activities that begin with the featured letter. Each page also has superimposed on it a full-color figure in the shape of its namesake: G, for example, is a golfer, with his swinging club and the green grass forming a clearly defined letter. Along the bottom of each page, two mice scamper. One has a cart of letters, which he places along the bottom so the alphabet grows as the pages proceed. The mouse’s antics reflect the letter: he juggles the letter J, kicks the letter K, and for N, he takes a nap. His companion mouse is usually within the picture somewhere: lodged in the hat of the quartet for Q, driving the toy train with an engineer’s cap on his head for T. The style is exaggerated and obsessively detailed, and it is hard not to be amused by one or another of the mice (that’s one turning a cartwheel on C). The last page lists all the words illustrated on each page that begin with its letter—and they aren’t just nouns, which is an added plus. O for original and offbeat. (Alphabet picture book. 3-7)