Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

 

I’ve got some board book art here at 7-Imp today, though it didn’t begin its life as board book art. It was once a picture book (published in 2007), but the publisher, Cinco Puntos Press, has adapted this to the board book format — and they released it earlier this year. ABeCedarios: Mexican Folk Art ABCs in English and Spanish is by Cynthia Weill and K. B. Basseches, and it features the wood sculptures, some of which I’m showcasing here today, of a Oaxacan family of artists, Moisés and Armando Jiménez. (This was the first book in Weill’s First Concepts in Mexican Folk Art series.)

There’s no shortage of ABC books in the field of children’s literature, but this one stands out on shelves, given the vibrantly sculpted hand-carved figures on each page. The book goes from A to Z, featuring animals with names whose initial letters range from A to Z — from the armadillo, pictured below, to the zedonk (a cross between a donkey and a zebra, of all the things). Each brightly-colored page features the English and Spanish name for each creature, and some pages include notes on the letters themselves. For instance, “Ll is no longer a letter in the Spanish alphabet, but the sound is still in use.” (Way to go, llama.)

I’m taken by these sculptures. Here a few more.

Enjoy!

 



 



 



 



 

Note to Educators: Evidently, the publisher is offering “very steep discounts” to literacy programs and non-profits for quantity purchases of these books.

ABECEDARIOS: MEXICAN FOLK ART ABCS IN ENGLISH AND SPANISH. Copyright © 2007 by Cynthia Weill and K. B. Basseches. Illustrations used by permission of the publisher, Cinco Puntos Press.