I really love the fact that this books simply takes every day pictures and tunrs them into letters from the alphabet. Its really creaive and the photoraph is really well done. Students in developmentle level 1 would have a great time finding the alphabet and just looking at the pictures. I would personally love a number book with the same format. ( )

This book has NO TEXT! I was surprised. It does have real life pictures that you need to pull the letter out of. The photos are neat but I was not impressed. I could use it for spying letters for PreK-K. ( )

This book takes an interesting perspective in presenting a very simple concept. Kids are familiar with the alphabet and the shapes of the letters from an early age. This book displays all the letters of the alphabet as he found them throughout urban settings. Some stand out clearly while others are more not as easily recognized. The author explains his book's purpose in a short introduction that gives the reader an even better sense of his accomplishment. I would challenge my fourth-graders to find the letters of the alphabet in their neighborhoods...or out in nature rather than in the city.

K-2. Picture book. This book would be great to show students how to recoginze the shapes of letters in everyday life. It may help them to better remember the form of the letter so it comes easier to them to remember what each letter looks like. ( )

I thought that this book was a great way of teaching students the alphabet and architecture. ( )

Fabulous alphabet book with pictures of real objects forming letters in different areas of a city.

I love abecedaria and this is beautiful one - and a Caldecott Honor Book to boot! The premise is simple and hardly original: to collect letters of the alphabet hidden within the urban landscape. The Zs of a fire escape, the G of a lamp-post's ornamentation, the N of a bridge's trusswork, the A of a sawhorse...

Stephen Johnson's paintings are lovely vignettes of the physical props to urban living: handrails, shadows, light fixtures, brickwork, pipes, windows, brackets, and flagstones. The paintings are realistic without being too photographic and their colour palette conjures urbanity as both grit and mystery. This book has no words - only capital letters. ( )

This book takes ordinary objects and views them in a new way. ( )

This book is really neat because there is no text, there are only illustrations that show how the alphabet is everywhere around us. It is very creative and it would be neat activity to ask your questions to find where they think the alphabet may be and ask them to name places they can think of where they live. ( )

Age Appropriateness: Primary/elementary
This book is an informational book. It is information because there are no words and it shows how letter can found all around us in our world (ex. street signs sideways = E). It is also non-fiction, which characterizes it's genre.
Setting: I think the settig is perfect for this type of story/book. It is good to have a city setting with buildings and lots of different shapes that could be found and made into letters.
Media: Paintings, watercolors, gouache & charcoal ( )

This is an interesting picture book that has preschoolers search inside the picture for the hidden letter.

This is a very creative book that highlights the alphabet that is all around us. Each page has an every day object like a traffic light that almost looks the shape of a letter. This would make another good choice for an interactive read aloud lesson on the letters if you had the children shout out the letter in the picture.

Caldecott Honor Book ( )

Cool alphabet book. I didn't even realize that the illustrations were paintings and not photographs until I read some reviews! Encourages kids' imaginations, encourages them to notice their surroundings, gives an opening for a geography/history lesson (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alphabet...), or an opening for an art discussion -- all kinds of uses including the most important one of all - simple enjoyment. ( )

The scenes of New York City look like photographs, but they are actually realistic paintings that reveal the alphabet in a most unusual way. For example the letter "G" shows up in the grill work of lamppost and an "H" appears within a scene of two buildings connected by an walkway. It is intriguing and requires a bit of sophistication on the part of the reader. 1995, Penguin, $14.99. Ages 4 up.New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books of the Year Winner 1995 United States
Randolph Caldecott Medal Honor Book 1996 United States

Marilyn Courtot (Children's Literature)
The scenes of New York City look like photographs, but they are actually realistic paintings that reveal the alphabet in a most unusual way. For example the letter "G" shows up in the grill work of lamppost and an "H" appears within a scene of two buildings connected by an walkway. It is intriguing and requires a bit of sophistication on the part of the reader. 1995, Penguin, $14.99. Ages 4 up. (Caldecott Award)

FROM BACK OF BOOK:
From the A of a construction sawhorse to the Z of a tenement fire escape, this truly unique alphabet book is guaranteed to satisfy the eye and the imagination. Using New York as an inspiration, the author has captured each letter of the alphabet as it occurs naturally in city surroundings.