AlphaOops!: The Day Z Went First [Hardcover]

Alethea Kontis (Author), Bob Kolar (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 4 and up | Grade Level: P and up

It's backwards! It's inside out! It's every letter for itself! This laugh-out-loud romp is not your average alphabet book!

Z is tired of always having to be last when the alphabet family lines up. He is demanding fair and equal treatment! The letters (more or less) agree to go backwards, but it's not long before P has some ideas of his own. And so does H, for that matter. In fact, it seems as if almost every letter has a different opinion about how the alphabet should be arranged. It's chaos! It's pandemonium! And it's definitely not as easy as A-B-C! Filled with visually humorous details, Bob Kolar's colorful illustrations are the perfect foil for Alethea Kontis's snappy story about the comic confusion that comes when the letters of the alphabet, like a class of unruly children, step out of order and show that each one has a mind of its own.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 1-2–Letter A starts to introduce itself and is interrupted by activist letter Z, demanding fair and equal turns at going first, wary of its last place in line, and followed in backwards order by letters Y, X, W, and (oops!) P. Soon all harmony disappears out the window, with the bickering letters and their accompanying words. Letter A remains disgruntled, and letter V insists on a second turn. Turmoil grows until letter A blossoms with not one, but a whole spread of words beginning with its sound. Digitally created googly-eyed letters with stick arms and legs, washed in bold colors, animate the alphabet with personality and emotions. Letter R performs a parody of Singing in the Rain, letter B is suspended from big beautiful balloons, letter Y knits a yarn cap, and a Sendak Wild Thing look-alike represents the letter M. Plenty of details to absorb, colorful images to grab the eye, and a confused letter template running below the action create alphabet antics for early readers. A fun addition.–Mary Elam, Forman Elementary School, Plano, TX
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Who says A comes first and Z goes last? Taking the stage in an uncharacteristically disorderly lineup, the letters of the alphabet speak up and act out like a group of unruly children, jockeying for better positions in the line, demanding second turns, and even taking bathroom breaks. The result is a zany alphabetical romp that begins with an animated letter Z ("Zebra and I are SICK of this last-in-line stuff!") and proceeds with splendid chaos to include all the letters, ending with A getting the last word. Every child whose name makes him or her last on any list will feel a kinship with the complaints of the end-of-alphabet letters, and perhaps other kids will see the justice of their grievance. Reflecting the letters' saucy ways, the colorful, stylized artwork dramatizes the action and offers bits of comic byplay for the observant. An alphabet book with attitude. Carolyn Phelan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 4 and up
  
• Hardcover: 48 pages
• Publisher: Candlewick (July 25, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0763627283
• ISBN-13: 978-0763627287
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 0.4 x 10.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #96,738 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

New York Times bestselling author Alethea Kontis is a princess, a goddess, a force of nature, and a mess. The sister of a famous jewelry designer and granddaughter of an infamous pirate, Alethea has profited from screwing up the alphabet, organizing Sherrilyn Kenyon's Dark-Hunter universe, sharing all her family's deepest, darkest secrets, and making little girls cry.

Alethea is the author of Sherrilyn Kenyon's Dark-Hunter Companion, as well as the AlphaOops series of picture books. She has done multiple collaborations with Eisner winning artist J.K. Lee, including A is for Alice, The Umbrella of Fun, and the illustrated Twitter serial Diary of a Mad Scientist Garden Gnome. Her debut YA fairy tale novel, Enchanted, will be published by HMH (Harcourt Books) in 2012.

Her short fiction, essays, and poetry have appeared in over ten anthologies, as well as venues such as Realms of Fantasy, Clarkesworld, and Apex Magazine, and she is the monthly book reviewer at Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show. You can find Princess Alethea online at: www.aletheakontis.com.

Born in Burlington, Vermont, Alethea now lives in Northern Virginia with her Fairy Godfamily. She makes the best baklava you've ever tasted and sleeps with a teddy bear named Charlie.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How do you educate without inhibiting creativity? Meet the answer., July 27, 2006

By 

Robert W. Barnwell "BobTheCopywriter" (Starkville, MS, United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: AlphaOops!: The Day Z Went First (Hardcover)

Education by its nature doesn't always encourage creative thought. Education calls for acceptance of certain facts. So how do you balance those facts with a sense of playfulness and wonder that makes learning fun for a young child? This book is the answer.

Whimsical and educational, AlphaOops is FUN! It's just that simple. I've already bought copies for both my youngest nieces. Read this book to a child in your life or, if they're old enough, give it to them to read.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An instant classic!, August 4, 2006

By 

James Maxey "James Maxey" (Hillsborough, NC United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: AlphaOops!: The Day Z Went First (Hardcover)

From the very first page I was in love with this book. It instantly connected to something I remember feeling in my childhood... the sense that there was something vaguely unfair about the "A" always going first. This book gives voice to that feeling of inequity. The old order must fall! X, Y, and Z's of the world, rise up and demand your day in the sun! Viva la revolution!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not enough stars to rate this FABULOUS book!!!!, August 1, 2006

By 

Tracy Noel Willoughby "Synicalchick" (Nashville, Tennessee) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: AlphaOops!: The Day Z Went First (Hardcover)

This is absolutely, beyond a shadow of a doubt THE best new children's book out! I love books that are not only great for children but entertaining for adults as well and this Clever, Funny book is for ALL AGES! It will most definitely be a classic and a must have for years to come. I LOVE IT!!!!