Quilt Alphabet (Leveled Books) [Hardcover]

Lesa Cline-Ransome (Author), James Ransome (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 4 and up | Grade Level: P and up | Series: Leveled Books

From apples to cows, kettles to scarecrows, warm country images abound in this delightful alphabet poem.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The husband-and-wife Ransomes (Satchel Paige) skillfully fashion a blue-ribbon ABC book that combines bright, folksy oil paintings and lilting riddle-poems. Alongside each painting, a rhyming verse describes an object beginning with a particular letter of the alphabet. For example, for the letter "P," the words "One part sugar, two parts spice/ Baked inside each sweet slice/ Seasoned with love, sprinkled with care/ Fresh-baked fragrance fills the air" are paired with a mouthwatering portrait of a lattice-topped pie. Throughout, a colorful quilted square depicting the appropriate alphabet letter appears alongside each verse, and the artist clearly showcases the riddle's answer in his work. A list of answers appears on the final page, too (readers may be surprised by the answer to the "X" riddle). Much of the sunny, country-inspired artwork is as crisp and fresh looking as clean laundry flapping on the clothesline. Several compositions capture the vibrant, pungent oranges, reds and yellows of autumn, including a scene of a glowing family of jack-o'-lanterns and a nighttime parade of trick-or-treaters that memorably illuminate the "J" page. The artist also adds dashes of humor, as when the text for "H" describes "Rodeo rider or out on the plain/ Home again on his own terrain," and the artwork pictures not a bucking stallion but a rocking horse. Ages 2-6.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

reS-Gr 3-Vibrantly illustrated, this alphabet poem book is a feast for the eyes. Bold folk-art paintings explore country life from A to Z. The opening, cheerful quilted endpaper states: "Each letter has a poem. Every poem is a clue. The answers are in back." Each letter is framed by a quilting square and accompanies the verse and the corresponding artwork, which allows readers to guess the intended word. Some spreads are particularly striking, such as a still life of apples for A, glowing jack-o'-lanterns for J, drifting leaves for L, and a swooping owl for O. Others are not as successful; for K, the painting of the kettle is dark and muddy. Other items include a birdhouse, a hobbyhorse, Raggedy Ann dolls, and a rooster. The poems are quite lovely, but the sophisticated vocabulary will preclude independent reading by beginners. Like all alphabet books, there is a stretch for some letters. An X on a cross-stitch embroidery, sunny yellow woods for Y, and zigzag for Z are not as concrete as other examples. Perfect for one-on-one sharing, this delightful book is full of bright visual and verbal images.

Alice Casey Smith, Sayreville Public Schools, Parlin, NJ

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 4 and up
  
• Hardcover: 48 pages
• Publisher: Holiday House; 1st edition (September 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0823414531
• ISBN-13: 978-0823414536
• Product Dimensions: 11.3 x 10 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,649,521 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars With full color, impressionistic-style illustrations, August 17, 2001

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Quilt Alphabet (Leveled Books) (Hardcover)

Lesa Cline-Ransome's Quilt Alphabet is a children's alphabet book with full color, impressionistic-style illustrations. In addition to the eye-catching pictures, each page has a short, memorable rhyme about an alphabet letter. The final page shows all twenty-six letters, each with a corresponding sample word, so as to better impress the alphabet in young minds just learning to read. An excellent early learning book.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An alphabet of riddles, March 2, 2004

By 

Erika Mitchell (E. Calais, VT USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Quilt Alphabet (Paperback)

This book features 26 short riddles where the key words are never named explicitly. Instead, they are described with rhyming pictures and shown in the pictures. Some of the clues are obvious, and others will cause even adults to pause and think a bit. The blurb on the cover says "Each letter has a poem. Every poem has a clue. The answers are in the back." There are no scary parts in the book. The book has about 600 words.