BACKSEAT A-B-SEE
by Maria van Lieshout & illustrated by Maria van Lieshout
Just when you thought there couldn’t possibly be another idea for an alphabet book—buckle up for this one!
From the backseat of a car, a road trip becomes an “I Spy” game of road signs. “Vroom! Vroom! What do you see?” A = Airport; B = Bike Route; D = Detour; J = Junction; L = Library; Q = Quack (ducks crossing); U = US 101; V = Van Accessible; X = X-ING. The only stretch is the letter Z; the symbol is a person lying on a bed, indicating hotel/motel with a series of Zs for sleeping. The digital illustrations are the perfect medium to convey this clever concept. There is no text other than the words on the signs, which are real, using familiar block figures. The graphic page design is dramatic with the vivid sign colors (blue, red, green, yellow) contrasting sharply with the black background. The taxi-yellow car with a round child’s head in the backseat is viewed only on the first and last pages, while the crosswise, wide white dashes denote car lanes and roads, unifying the design throughout and suggesting motion on a trip.
The license plate on the car on the cover says, “ABC*FUN,” and it is! (Alphabet book. 3-6)