Alligators All Around: An Alphabet

From Maurice Sendak’s Nutshell Library comes this nontraditional alligator alphabet book. Although a bit dated [it was written in 1962], the nonsensical, alliterative book features a family of alligators doing all sorts of things that families might do together, with each activity matching a letter of the alphabet.

Today “Imitating Indians” or “Pushing People” readily fall into problematic areas [the former being objectifying, the latter being behaviorally disturbing]; nevertheless, it is impossible to deny the uniqueness of the muted illustrations and the consistent pattern [letter, verb, noun] of the narrative that, fifty-eight years after its writing, continues to focus on helping young readers understand the alphabet. And show more young children love the nonsensical qualities . . . “ordering oatmeal” often earns giggles and the “forever fooling” Dad giving the young alligator a piggy-back ride is downright adorable.

Although inquisitive alphabet-learning readers may not entertain elephants or keep kangaroos [other than the stuffed varieties] or ride reindeer [except, perhaps, on the carousel], they will readily connect with catching colds and getting giggles and never napping. For young readers, “Alligators All Around” with its identifiable family doing things together [and sometimes behaving badly] is immensely engaging. Quirky, clever, charming, and silly, it’s a perfect alphabet introduction for young children.

Highly recommended. show less

A simple, cute alphabet book that seems to want to show the reader that, 'Alligators are just like us!'. The silliness of Sendak has timeless appeal for children and the children inside of the adults reading to children. 'Spoiled' children seem to be a theme with Sendak!

This is an alphabet book that starts with "Alligators all around" for "A." The trio of alligators (presumably a family) then illustrate the remaining pages with alliterative actions for the rest of the letters (e.g., "bursting balloons," "catching colds," etc.). There's the politically incorrect "imitating Indians," but otherwise the book holds up fairly well despite its age. It probably wouldn't be my first go-to for an alphabet book, but it's a decent enough choice, especially for those who are fans of Sendak's style of humor and illustrations.

Impulse grab at the library. I had no idea that this was still in circulation. Quite fun. I like the family dynamics, including the father Doing Dishes. I love the expressions on their faces. I do wish that every instance was in that verb-object pattern, but would be difficult. When sharing with your child, though, add a word, and say "Ignorantly Imitating Indians."

I love alphabet books and Maurice Sendak, so this one was irresistible.

The alligators engage in all sorts of activities, from bursting balloons, through imitating Indians and riding reindeer, all the way to yackety-yacking, until, "Zippety-zound! Alligators all around."

I really liked this book because it was a type of book that I do not come across very often. One reason I liked it was because of the illustrations. They were showing the readers exactly what the text was saying. They were colorful but all of the illustrations only had about three of the same colors in all of them. The illustrations also showed emotions of what the alligators were doing in the book. For instance, an alligator was “throwing a tantrum” and you could see one of the alligators crying and the other one covering its ears looking annoyed. I also liked the language of the book. It was an easy read because it was in a pattern. It showed readers alliteration. Each page was about something the alligators did but all the words show more started with the same letter. It went in alphabetical order. The big idea of this book is to show beginning readers the alphabet. It shows sentences with what the alligators are doing using all of the same letter to begin each word. show less

Alligators All Around: An Alphabet by Maurice Sendak has Sendak’s classic illustrations of alligators doing ridiculous things; but Sendak’s text is not politically correct in this day and age (for example, imitating Indians and pushing people). It's not my favorite.