Customer Reviews

ABCs (Chunky Version)

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I loved this book! The illustrations of animals on each spread are graceful works of art. The delicate use of line, color and shape sometimes looks Japanese, sometimes like a collage made of construction paper. Others are loose pen-and-ink drawings.

You can tell the late Charley Harper loved animals, as his affection for them jumps off the page. There is so much personality! In D is for Dog, the smiling spaniel has dirt on his nose and legs, and you can almost see him panting. In I is for Iguana, two giant lizards battle for a captive tiny pig, swinging their tails and rearing up. Q is for Quail shows whirring wings on a fat and happy bird.

The inside covers show a collage of dozens of other Harper animals, most of which are not used in the book.

The board book itself is a little more sturdy than most. It will hold up well.

Charley Harper's ABC's is an outstanding way to introduce fine artwork to young children. Other good choices include Zen Ties and Walt Disney's Cinderella.

This book is a great sampling of Charley Harper's work and a great ABC board book for kids.

There is something interesting or cute in nearly every picture. Harper's unmistakable style makes the alphabet enjoyable.

ABC's uses Harper's stylized graphics of animals with few words and lots of nature study. Delightful for adults and educational for children. I am a Harper fan and would not normally buy a board page book. The unusual binding makes the board pages work well.

I've been keeping an eye on the release of this book and it was worth the wait!
This is a very fun book with a clever and funny mix of some of Charley Harper's most notable images. Each time you open the book, there is a classic picture that will make you want to go through the whole book.
Delightful for any age and an excellent gift for any Charley Harper fan.

Charley Harper called his style "minimal realism", an attempt to capture the essence of his subjects with the least elements:

"When I look at a wildlife or nature subject, I don't see the feathers in the wings, I just count the wings. I see exciting shapes, color combinations, patterns, textures, fascinating behavior and endless possibilities for making interesting pictures. I regard the picture as an ecosystem in which all the elements are interrelated, interdependent, perfectly balanced, without trimming or unutilized parts; and herein lies the lure of painting; in a world of chaos, the picture is one small rectangle in which the artist can create an ordered universe."

This lovely little collection of ABCs is a great sampling for kids and for adults -- both are sure to enjoy the life Harper can bring to the page with such sophisticated simplicity.

At a much higher price point, Charley Harper: An Illustrated Life is an exhaustive review of his life and his work. Todd Oldham put that book together, and has put an summary of Harper's work, a short interview and a view of Harper's studio on YouTube: search "TODD OLDHAM'S HANDMADE MODERN - CHARLEY HARPER ESSAY" on YouTube. At a lower price point, Art Of Charley Harper 2009 Wall Calendar is nonetheless a lovely, representative collection.

There are a couple of other links in the first Comment to this review, including an interesting interview courtesy the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. This quote, from Beguiled by the Wild: The Art of Charley Harper, is a good example of his love of word play:

"Crows are black birds and blackbirds are also, but a crow in the snow is so much the more so. If you're pro-crow you proclaim his intellect, his resourcefulness, and the visual poetry of his somber silhouette on the calligraphy of the cornfield. But if it's your cornfield, you have good caws to compose creative crowfanities when he arrives. Think of it as sharecropping: he gets the grasshoppers, you get the corn, and the few ears missed in the harvest are held in, well--escrow."

Harper's work is about as far from the realism of John James Audubon as it is possible to imagine, but both artists capture reality in their very different ways.

Robert C. Ross 2008

What a delight - a book that is as beautiful for the parents as it is for children. This stylish book is perfect. The pages are sturdy and plentiful for avid page turning toddlers. The letters are bold and the accompanying graphics are beautiful and full of surprises. My daughter is delighted with something new each time we read this book. It is a classic and our new favorite!

This book is BEAUTIFUL! What a fantastic way to learn the alphabet and be inspired at the same time. Harper's artwork is gorgeous, inspired and whimsical.

The "U is for Underwater" page really grabbed my attention. There are 3 molecules illustrated above a scene of water and lightning. Guess what - it's the origin of life on Earth!

The left molecule is CH3NH2 - Methylamine, the simplest primary amine.

The center molecule is NH2CH2COOH - Glycine, the smallest of the 20 amino acids.

The right molecule is CH3CHO - Acetaldehyde, which can condense with cyanide and ammonia to give, after hydrolysis, the amino acid Alanine, which is the next largest amino acid.

Simple organic molecules like these are thought to have been formed by lightning or hydrothermal vents, and to have been the building blocks of life in the waters of the ancient Earth.

Not the sort of thing you'd expect to find in an ABC book!

I have always loved the illustrations of Charlie Harper and this children's book is no exception. You and your child will love it.

This ABC book is beautifully illustrated. Pleasing for both a child and adult to look at.
The one thing that strikes me as strange is that the whole book follows the "A is for Ape, B is for Bird" pattern until you get to "N is for Nest", then "U is for Underwater???", "W is for Web" and "X- how many X's Can You Find?". It would have been nice to have animals on all the pages.. well I guess X is a bit hard. Perhaps they didn't have any illustrations from Charley Harper to fit those pages?
But otherwise I love this book. Would even look good on the coffee table!