Virtually a poem written in rhyming couplets this alphabetical (A is for...) verse tells the tale of a journey two children take looking for treasure. The poem itself is vague but it is the illustrations which bring the story to life. Extremely detailed with many events happening on each page, one lingers looking deep inside each picture before turning the page. The illustrations add to the text by showing a story of the brother and sister traveling through an ancient sewer-type of environment and the sister gets kidnapped by some ugly looking dudes. The brother then follows them trying to be a hero and rescue his sister. Not recommended as an ABC book for young children as, for one thing, the alphabet is not entirely in order and the author uses creative licence for what the letters stand for such as "Y's your last question", "U are the reader" and "L is, like 'eaven...". Also the pictures are quite creepy with very creepy creatures, skeletons and lots of bones. For the appropriate age it is a fun book with especially fun illustrations. ( )

I liked the book. But I was a bit disappointed to find a few inconstancies between drawings and the text, along with with the sister not doing a whole lot to save herself. I suspect the tween crowd will love this book. ( )

A ghastly abecedarian book containing a "dangerous flaw". This thin volume chronicles the piratical adventures of two small children and their pet gazelle.

The letters are not always represented in the text i.e. "C is the way that we find and we look". But you can have fun finding how many things beginning with each letter are in the picture. i.e. cat, clocks, candles, corpses, cauldron, calamari.

Recommended for ages 5 and up. ( )

In this picture book, the alphabet takes one on an adventure through the strangely conceived illustrations of Gris Grimly. Here, A is for always, B is for boat, C is a metaphor for seeing, D is for Diamonds, E is for Evil, F is for fear, G is for Good, H is for help, I is for I am the author, J is for Joke, K is for kiss, L is for leavin, M is for mirrors, N is for night, O is for ovens, p is for piracy, q is for quiet, r is for river, s is for somewhere, t is for treasure, U is for U are the reader, W is for warnings v is for vile deeds, x is for marks the spot, y is the last question, and z waits alone. The artwork in this book is phenomenal, beautiful conceived in an abstraction of a dark, surrealistic, dream reality, with a cartooony twist. The intensity and substance of the artwork is of great importance to the creativity of this book, it makes it. The storyline on which the pictures follow is touch up; the art definitely makes this book. ( )

While it’s clearly a children’s book, The Dangerous Alphabet has an element of spookiness to it and somber, spidery illustrations that make it just right for adults too. It is “spooky” and could “spook” children, but for one who doesn’t like Halloween because of the spookiness, I have to say this was alright with me.

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