The Accidental Zucchini: An Unexpected Alphabet

Ordinary objects become fresh and new, while the extraordinary suddenly look familiar. Chew the fat with a neighbor over your Fork Fence! Ride the Macaroni Merry-go-round for the twirl of your life! And, heavens, hope for sunshine if you’re wearing your Umbrella Underwear! “A funny, loopy variation of a standard, bound to inspire youngsters to whip up their own weird wordings.”

Mostly weird, sometimes downright surreal. I have to admit that Octopus Overalls made me smile, but overall the only use that I can think of for this is as a mentor text. I'm sure your students will come up with much better entries for most of the letters.

I think I'm getting too hung up on the fact that there is NO ZUCCHINIS in a book called The Accidental Zucchini. But I give it a whole extra star because I love the octopus overalls and vegetable volcano.

This is a fun very basic alphabet book for young children. It goes through the list by using two words that start with the appropriate letter and pairing them up in a silly way. These include "cupcake canyon," "ice-cream island," and "octopus overall" among many others. The pairings are funny and exciting; you never know what will come next. The words are very simple but they are accompanied by great illustrations that make children laugh. They are very colorful and look a little childlike. It is definitely a fun way to learn the alphabet!

This book goes through the alphabet introducing very silly and unusual combinations of objects along the way. This includes Apple Autos, Cupcake Canyon, Ice-Cream Island, and Octopus overalls.
The vibrant illustrations were done in bright acrylics and the illustrations live up to the silly titles. This is a great book to introduce the alphabet and make it extra fun. Children would easily remember this super silly combinations. A great find.

As we go through the alphabet, we are surprised by each picture! There are apples acting as cars, bathtub boats, octopus overalls, and junkyard jungles! In this crazy & colorful universe, Max Grover has managed to make the same old ABC book for children exciting again. Great book.

I'm was actually not a huge fan of this book. The illustrations are definitely not my favorite and I thought the word combinations were not all that clever. I do not know what would make me like this book better - perhaps if there was a "theme" to it such as all animals (because I did enjoy the "dogs dance" and "octopus overalls" pages).