Stephen T. Johnson

I really enjoyed this unique perspective on an alphabet book; the concept of abstract art is maybe a little vague for children to understand, though I might not be giving them enough credit! I guess I'm thinking of the typical audience for alphabet books, primary level kids, mostly.

But anyway, whether one fully understands the ideas behind perception and representation, etc., kids can surely have a lot of fun trying to pick out the letters in each art piece and also in trying to think of show more words that the pictures represent. I had a lot of fun trying to guess the words the artist would use in each caption before I looked down at it.

A very unique, highly interactive alphabet book to spend a lot of time with! show less

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 show more 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. show less

I picked this book because it looked very interesting and I was curious about what a children's book would say about a taxi. As I opened the book I realized that it was more than a book about a taxi. This book teaches the readers about multiple aspects of maintaining a car. I absolutely loved the simplicity of the book and its personification. For instance, it stated , " First, I fill up my taxi with gasoline. Gasoline gets my taxi going- and makes it very happy." I thought this show more personification was absolutely adorable. i also feel like this book is so informational that it blows my mind. This book shows children a gas handle and informs them that the car takes gasoline. Then it talks about checking the oil so that the motor works. personally, I didn't know how or where to check my oil until I got my first car, three years ago. The fact that this book teaches its readers so much about cars is amazing. I feel like even though , this is a children's book, many people a lot older may not know these simple aspects to maintaining a car. This book is beneficial for children to read because whether or not they will have a car in the future, they will always know this information. show less

With just jumping into this book it took me a while to realize what I was actually looking at. I went through the book many times and finally saw how awesome this book really is. I love the way the book lets you see a number within a gorgeous picture and getting excited about it. I think children of any age could enjoy this book. Finding a way to incorporate it into a lesson would be difficult because it doesn't fall within your typical math "lessons" (addition, subtraction, etc..), but show more understanding the world around us and seeing beyond is also very much apart of appreciating math, so I loved this book. Showing kids how math literally is all around us could start with this book. show less