By Clive Beneventi (2022)
As alphabet books go this one hits the targets. The pages are clear and colorful with illustrations which strike a beautiful balance between cartoon and realism. The alliteration is spot on, which is incredibly important when writing an alphabet book with full sentences instead of single word labels. English has a few challenges when it comes to alphabet books, namely letters such as 'c' and 's' which changed their sound dramatically when paired with 'h'. These pitfalls are deftly avoided in this book as the pages represent only one animal and one food, the pages are not striving to identify countless examples of the given letter. But there still remain the letters which English speakers relegate to the middle or end of words, even the end of the alphabet - 'x', 'y', and 'z'. English language alphabet authors have recently been fortunate in the rise of popularity of the unicorn, but many remain hard pressed to find an animal to grace the 'x' page. Not this author! He found a bird and it is possible it eats melon, which is an example of another technique employed by English alphabet authors - pulling in words from other languages.
The use of other languages is quite a useful and creative technique. It opens the world for the reader, and can also bring in readers with diverse linguistic backgrounds. American English specifically has brought in many words from other languages and uses them regularly at all levels of communication from slang to academic. It follows that many words in an English alphabet book could come from other languages and the reader might not even notice, as is the case in this book on the 'g' page and others. However when a word is uncommon or even previously unused in English it stands out to the reader as something that requires attention. I am always happy to expand my world vocabulary - and that of the kids I read with, but the sudden use of a word I can't guess at the pronunciation of, in a book of words I expect to know quiet well, is off putting during a dry read with a young audience.
The bio of the author states he wrote this book while wondering and wandering with his two children. Wondering specifically if pigs eat fermented cucumbers - I'm fairly certain they'll eat anything - and do believe that was the genesis for this book. The 'p' page is excellent as both words begin with 'pi' so that the pronunciation of 'p' is identical in each utterance. And the pigs are adorably clothed - the first and only animals to be completed dressed out of 25 other pages. Now this was also striking. Animals in children's books are often clothed in some manner and usually less to do with propriety and more to do with character differentiation. This book introduces a new character on every page but as they are all different animals and never interact it is unnecessary to further differentiate them. And so I find myself wandering in my thoughts and wondering if pigs where pyjamas?