The Sleepy Little Alphabet: A Bedtime Story from Alphabet Town (2009)

This is a book where the ABC parents are chasing their abc children to get them to sleep. They are chasing around and words relate to what they are doing. Until they all fall asleep.

Characters: Alphabets

Setting: A house in Alphabet Town where the alphabets reside

Theme: Learning alphabets

Summary: Alphabets are getting ready for a bedtime. They take a bath, change into new underwear and pajamas, use the toilet, and are being tucked into bed, all ready to go to sleep.

Review: This is both a great alphabet book and engaging concept book. Each alphabet has faces with realistic, comical expressions and is full in action. Children will enjoy the rhythm, alliteration, and rhyme the book presents. The drawings mixed capital letters with lowercase letters which can be used as an informal assessment while teacher reads the book aloud to children (which "t" is the capital letter? Which one is the lowercase?). Also, using the alphabets, teacher can guide students to create an abc poem with rhyme. They will have extra fun personifying each alphabet in their drawings, adding facial expressions and actions.

Curriculum ties: Language arts, health (bedtime) ( )

Sierra, J. (2009). The Sleepy Little Alphabet. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

9780375940026

Appetizer: When it comes time to sleep in Alphabet Town, is seems many of the little letters aren't quite ready for bed.

Making use of some alliteration and the occasional rhyme, The Sleepy Little Alphabet shares the alphabet in order, usually (but not always!) reinforcing the sound of each letter with an adjective or verb that incorporates that letter.

The text also makes specific use of a parent being the one to put the wee little letters to bed. So, another teacher-type (babysitter, grandparent, what have you) may want to pause and ad-lib a little to make space for themselves and the child in the story.

I thought the illustrations were so-so. They were child-like and often humorous, but I thought it would have been nice that if as the text slowly calms toward the end the pictures did as well. Or at least used more muted colors. But, because the illustrations were still so bright, I think kids might miss out on the relaxing get-ready-to-sleep-now-please!!!! sensation.

On the more positive side, I did like that many books were shown throughout the illustrations (including a little little alphabet book).

Dinner Conversation:

"It's sleepytime in Alphabet Town. As moms and dads run round and round, the little letters skitter-scatter, helter skelter--what's the matter?"

"Uh-oh! a is wide awake."

"g has got the googly giggles."

"i and j jump on the bed."

To Go with the Meal:

As you can probably guess by the title, dear readers, this is a good alphabet book for bedtime or nap time.

As a young-one and teacher go through the book, a teacher could encourage the student to trace the letters. When the book talks about taking a bath and other bedtime routines, the teacher could pause and check to make sure the young reader had done the same bedtime tasks.

Tasty Rating: !!! ( )

THE SLEEPY LITTLE ALPHABET is an ideal bedtime book. The basic idea is that each of the letters in the alphabet are getting ready to go to bed. For example, the letter B "still has a bath to take" and the letter T "tucks in her teddy bear." The story goes through each letter in the alphabet until all of the letters are sound asleep in their own beds.

Letter coming to life make this story a great bedtime book! Kids will live the silly pharses with the letters in action! ( )