Amazon.com Review
The Alphabet Keeper is a grouchy old lady who keeps all her letters locked up in a cage in a dark room. A burst of compassion compels her to clean their cage one day, and given the opportunity, the letters escape hastily. The Alphabet Keeper chases after them and quickly discovers how resourceful those letters can be, given space to move about freely. They take refuge in a park and when the keeper sneaks up on them, the "p turns upside down and the park becomes bark," leaving a little dog to chase the keeper away. When the Alphabet Keeper comes up with a plan, the t turns it into a plant. "'Stupid plant!' she yells, and kicks it. Then p and l break away, and the plant turns into an ant," who wanders off quietly. Mary Murphy's clever story and illustrations feature the temperamental lady, dressed all in gray and sporting thick, black, angry eyebrows, constantly screaming, shouting, kicking, and throwing things. Fittingly, given her poor attitude, she's relentlessly foiled by the agile, flying letters, who've clearly paid attention to their spelling lessons and might be quite good at Scrabble Junior. In fact, this funny little book is likely to give young spellers a boost of interest and creativity in the classroom, and that can only be a good thing. (Ages 4-8) --Jennifer Lindsay
From School Library Journal
Grade 1-3-The Alphabet Keeper imprisons all her letters in a cage, but when she opens the door to clean, a gust of wind sweeps them out the window to freedom. The woman chases after them, but when she tries to capture them, they rearrange themselves, change the venue, and become something else. For example, when the Alphabet Keeper sneaks up on the letters in the park, "p turns upside down and the park turns into bark!" Her plan to track them down in a boat is foiled when she steps onto the deck only to find that "u swaps with e- and the deck turns into a duck." The Alphabet Lady is depicted with mean, shifty eyes; black hair drawn up in a bun; and a gray-green hat and coat. Her room is a dark, purple oval. In contrast, the liberated letters, all lowercase, are adorned with smiles and float playfully across the pages. Children will need a fairly firm handle on phonics to fully appreciate this manipulation of letters to create new words. Nevertheless, this story may be a good springboard for some wordplay and youngsters will enjoy building even more words as they go along.
Marianne Saccardi, Norwalk Community College,
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From the Inside Flap
The Alphabet Keeper keeps all the letters caged in the dark. But one day they escape while she?s cleaning their cage?and then there is no stopping them! The clever letters are on the loose, rearranging themselves at every turn. With a few quick moves, the Alphabet Keeper?s hat becomes a cat. A bus turns into a bush. A rock changes into a rocket. And the flyaway alphabet is on its way to a final farewell!
About the Author
Mary Murphy is the author and illustrator of several picture books. This is her first picture book for Knopf.
