AlphaOops!: The Day Z Went First [Hardcover]

Alethea Kontis (Author), Bob Kolar (Illustrator)

Book Description

Release date: July 25, 2006 | Age Range: 4 - 8 years

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

• Age Range: 4 - 8 years
  
• 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: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (42 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #292,866 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. She's known for screwing up the alphabet, scolding vampire hunters, turning garden gnomes into mad scientists, and making sense out of fairy tales.

Alethea is the co-author of Sherrilyn Kenyon's Dark-Hunter Companion, and penned the AlphaOops series of picture books. Her short fiction, essays, and poetry have appeared in a myriad of anthologies and magazines. She has done multiple collaborations with Eisner winning artist J.K. Lee, including The Wonderland Alphabet and Diary of a Mad Scientist Garden Gnome. Her debut YA fairy tale novel, Enchanted, won the Gelett Burgess Children's Book Award in 2012 and was nominated for both the Andre Norton Award and the Audie Award in 2013.

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.

You can find Princess Alethea online at: www.aletheakontis.com.

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. VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

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.

9 of 9 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

Format: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!!!!

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful

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

By James Maxey

Format: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!

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderfully humorous alphabet book! July 31, 2006

By Rosalie E. Stone

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

It's great to find a book that adults or older children can read aloud over and over again to younger children without ever getting bored. The humor in the text and illustrations of "AlphaOops" is contagious. Fun on every page, with a super-abundance of delight at the end! After seeing my son's copy, I am ordering several more--one for me, and others for gifts. This book is a must have for adults and children who know how much FUN words can be.

This is not a book for teaching the order of the letters, of course, but once a child knows the alphabet well, he or she will be continually amused at the incongruities in the book. If there were a six star rating, this book would deserve it!

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Splendiferous! August 4, 2006

By Casey Cothran

Format:Hardcover

What a wonderful book! Kontis does a beautiful job of describing each letter as a unique individual who functions within the wild and wonderous Alphabet "family." The writing is clever and charming, and the story will keep children (and parents) giggling from beginning to end. Indeed, AlphaOops is sure to both teach and delight.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A great children's book October 5, 2006

By Ariadna González Agostini

Format:Hardcover

What happens when Z wants to be the first in the alphabet? And P decides not to go in the middle anymore? Alphaoops! The Day Z Went First tells the story about how Z got tired of being at the end of the alphabet and asks to go first. The illustrations in the book are very colorful captivating the reader's attention. The pictures are simple and the persons can follow the story by looking to the pictures. This book is not only good for learn the alphabet, but helps too, to enhance the children's vocabulary.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Almost the perfect picture book September 27, 2006

By Jason B. Sizemore

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I bought this for my two year old daughter. One look at the fanciful and colorful art by Bob Kolar and she loved it.

Her first remark after flipping through the first few pages: "Z mean!"

I wouldn't call "Z" mean. The poor guy just wants his chance to be first. Ms. Kontis has taken all those feelings of repression folks like me, who are always last in everything because our surnames end with S, T, and so on.

As an adult, you'll enjoy the art and even the story.

And like me, you'll enjoy reading this one to your child.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars great book September 8, 2009

By K. Schmidt

Format:Hardcover

Kids see the letters as charactors and remember them as individuals not as a sequence