JEEPERS CREEPERS

Twenty-six monsters, alphabetically arranged, enjoy a day at school in this cheerful offering. “Ann has alligator skin, / Bud grows toadstools on his chin,” Leuck begins. Parkins’s bright, offbeat illustrations, which stand out against a white background, have massive kid-appeal. They also add another dimension to the story. In a double-page spread for the letters K and L, for example, Parkins turns Kendra, whose “tail is spiked and strong” into an ungainly green dino in a frilly tutu. Lucy, whose “tongue is ten feet long,” is an anteater-type creature who uses that appendage to grip a marker for drawing. It’s a stretch to call this an alphabet book, however. Aside from the monsters’ names, there aren’t any other letter/word associations to be made. (Picture book. 6-9)