BRAIN TRAIN

In this alphabet book, a derailed train’s off-course journey creates delightful chaos.

Traveling from A to Z, the vehicle goes spectacularly off the rails, jumbling the order of the ABCs in charming ways. Each letter receives focused attention as Mylie peppers his alliterative text with onomatopoeia—“DING DING! Delivery! Delicious dinner is served!”—that adds playful energy to the reading experience. His ink and watercolor illustrations have a wonderfully bustling, vintage quality that rewards careful examination. They evoke the spirit of the 1980s book series Sweet Pickles, in which a green pickle bus (rather than a train) and similar-looking friendly animal characters helped preschoolers (perhaps Mylie himself?) learn to love reading. The compositions burst with activity and detail, using varied perspectives and dynamic angles to create visual excitement. Warm, saturated colors fill the pages, resulting in an inviting atmosphere, while the strategic use of contrasting hues helps important elements pop from busy backgrounds. Sharp-eyed readers can hunt for both uppercase and lowercase letters cleverly hidden within each scene, plus objects that begin with the featured letter (a dog, a dragon, a dolphin, daffodils, and dice populate the D page). The journey to the Memory Palace provides a cohesive narrative framework that gives purpose to the alphabetical disorder, while the abundant visual details support multiple early-literacy skills, including phonological awareness, letter recognition, and vocabulary building.

A thoughtful alphabet book that succeeds in making letter learning feel like an adventure worth taking.