Dr Seuss's ABC by Dr Seuss
| Dr Seuss's ABC by Dr Seuss | |
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| Category: For Sharing | |
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Reviewer: Sam Tyler
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| Summary: Take a look at your ABCs through the prism of Dr Seuss in this daft, but different, take on the alphabet. | |
| Buy? Maybe | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 64 | Date: March 2017 |
| Publisher: Harper Collins Children's Books | |
| External links: Author's website | |
| ISBN: 9780007487752 | |
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No one who has read his work can deny that Dr Seuss had a powerful imagination. He was able to pluck from his brainpan not only interesting takes on old ideas but also new creatures and worlds that had never been seen before. His books are often madder than a box of March hares, but even he must have had his limits? The humble ABC book (dare I say the dull ABC book), surely he could not bring his sense of anarchic fun to this staple of the children's education market?
A is for Apple, but it is also for Ape, Art and Aunt Annie's Alligator. Put all these things together into a blender and you get a sense of what Dr Seuss's ABC is; a book that has the educational elements of a traditional ABC book, but also the daft humour of the author. All the way from A through to Z, you get a series of funny scenarios that have a bunch of seemingly random items together. Don't have enough things that start with Z? No problem, this is Dr Seuss, so just make something up.
Dr Seuss's ABC is a hard book to consider as it is great fun, but also a little maddening. The ABC book is something that toddlers will use early on as a foundation to build later reading on. If they can learn their alphabet, they can develop their words. Most ABCs are super simple with easy to understand and recognise objects representing the letter. This is not that book. Seuss plucked ideas from his books and imagination and threw them onto the page. This means that this ABC outing is more varied and fun than most, but it also a little difficult to follow?
This particular alphabet book is not aimed at the traditional toddler group, but the slightly older reluctant reader who never found reading that much fun. The scattergun approach to the activities and items chosen makes the book engaging and fun. If a picture of a Ball bores you, a bunch of bubbles, barbers and babies may be more exciting. Seuss' patented illustrations and colour scheme also helps.
After reading through the book several times it seems that this may be an amalgamation. The images on the page are great fun, but they often seem disjointed and not linking, as if various illustrations from elsewhere have been copied and pasted onto the page. Was Seuss directly involved in this book, or has it been developed later? Seuss purists will find it lacks the fun narrative that made his best books so great, but they are not the target audience. Instead, it is that slightly older reader who has yet to really bother getting to grips with their alphabet who will appreciate this the most. Yes, they are being taught, but in a manner that is daft enough that they may not even realise it.
There are lots of different ABC books that you can find that will suit different types of reader, from the advanced Robert Crowther's Pop up Dinosaur Alphabet to the simple British Museum: ABC by Nosy Crow. We also liked What Was I Scared Of? by Dr Seuss.
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You can read more book reviews or buy Dr Seuss's ABC by Dr Seuss at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy Dr Seuss's ABC by Dr Seuss at Amazon.com.
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