Helpful Alphabet of Friendly Objects [Hardcover]

John Updike (Author), David Updike (Photographer)

Book Description

Age Level: 5 and up | Grade Level: K and up

Delightful poems and photos of well-known and well-loved objects provide children with a memorable excursion into the world of letters and words, by a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and his son.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In addition to illustrious name of Updike, this extraordinary alphabet book offers numerous rewards-poems that are by turns thoughtful and lively; crisp photographs that seem both familiar and new; and a book design so fresh and appealing as to ensure repeat readings. Each poem and photograph describes ordinary things-apple, cat, eggs, shoes and socks-in language and images playfully accessible to preschoolers. "At evening/ when the grass is dewy," reads the poem for "R," "out hops the rabbit/ feeling chewy." For the letter H, a photo shows a boy crouched beside a gleaming chrome hubcap in which his image is reflected "stretched sideways like gum." Clever design elements begin with bright endpapers that repeat the interior photographs and letters; within, the typeface in "D" changes with each word comparing dogs and cats (a dog is "jumpier," its tail is "thumpier," etc.) in a kind of visual onomatopoeia; the words of the K-is-for-knot poem loop and meander to mimic "the thing that happens to string"; the photos appear in ovals and circles as well as standard squares and rectangles. This book is an introduction not only to letters but to looking at people and objects "as if you were/ inside them for a ride." Ages 3-8.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal

Kindergarten-Grade 2?Updike's brief poems describe common everyday animals and objects from A-Z in language that is lively, succinct, and fun: "A dog/is jumpier;/its fur/is clumpier;/its tail/is thumpier;/but rarely/(compared to a cat)/is it grumpier." The appealing full-color photos range from sharply focused closeups to reflections and sweeping action shots of adorable animals and photogenic children. Each page has a different colored background, and the layout is varied and creative. The "Y" page, for "you," features kids of various ages and ethnic backgrounds playing, napping, and posing. This is not a memorable collection of poetry, but it's an entertaining selection that can be used as a concept book.?Christine A. Moesch, Buffalo and Erie County Public Library, NY
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 5 and up
  
• Hardcover
• Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers (July 10, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679943242
• ISBN-13: 978-0679943242
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 8.8 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,881,297 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

John Updike was born in 1932, in Shillington, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Harvard College in 1954, and spent a year in Oxford, England, at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art. From 1955 to 1957 he was a member of the staff of The New Yorker, and since 1957 lived in Massachusetts. He was the father of four children and the author of more than fifty books, including collections of short stories, poems, essays, and criticism. His novels won the Pulitzer Prize (twice), the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Rosenthal Award, and the Howells Medal. A previous collection of essays, Hugging the Shore, received the 1983 National Book Critics Circle Award for criticism. John Updike died on January 27, 2009, at the age of 76.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A unique children's book with playful photographs, December 4, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: A Helpful Alphabet of Friendly Objects (Hardcover)

This is not just an ordinary children's book from this Pulitzer Prize winning author. It's Updike's fifth children's book. I think it is his best. A delightful alphabet celebrates everyday objects children know and love. In this father and son collaboration, renowned author John Updike's cheery poems and David Updike's direct, playful photographs provide a guide not only to the alphabet but to the charms of the world around us.

The action color photographs are supherb, some of them depicting Updike's grandchildren and Updike himself is pictured on Y for YOU along with all his grandchildren on one page. Twenty-six stunning pictures and poems you have to read and savor: apple, bird, cat, dog, egg, flowers, garbage can, hubcaps,icicles, jam, knot, lamp, mirror, nickel, oatmeal, pie plate, Q-tip, rabbit, shoes and socks, toy, umbrella, vacuum cleaner, window, xylophone, you, and zero. Ordinary words perhaps but the poems and photographs are not! A must read for ages 4-8 but also for the child in all of us.