{"id":1435,"date":"2008-09-09T00:01:02","date_gmt":"2008-09-09T06:01:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=1435"},"modified":"2008-09-09T00:01:29","modified_gmt":"2008-09-09T06:01:29","slug":"awfully-good-abecedary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=1435","title":{"rendered":"Abecedary of Awful"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alphabet picture books and picture books in rhyme are—admit it—very difficult to do and often done quite poorly. Raise your hand if you pick up an alphabet book and then wonder with a bit of ennui what the author could possibly<\/em> manage to pull off for the letters “x” and “z” this time. <\/p>\n

Well, here’s what I found to be a breath of fresh air when it came to alphabet picture books AND in rhyme: Linda Ashman’s<\/strong><\/a> M is for Mischief: An A to Z of Naughty Children<\/strong><\/a><\/em> (Dutton Children’s Books, July ’08), illustrated by Nancy Carpenter. Really, you will not hear me praise books-in-rhyme very often. Not ’cause I raise my nose at them — but because they’re very difficult to do well. But Ashman does it well here and does it with style. Naughty style. Ooh, sizzle! <\/p>\n

What child isn’t going to revel in this, page after page of terrible, awful, no-good, very bad behavior — one for each letter of the alphabet? Eva eavesdrops, Oscar is offensive, Ruby is rude, Daphne doodles (on her sleeping father, no less), Vern is vile, and…You know you’re waiting for it: “X” is for “Experimenting Xavier”:<\/p>\n

Xavier gets excited mixing extracts in the sink.
\nMama takes exception, says, “You’ll make us all extinct!”
\nExplains to him explicitly, “You lack the expertise
\nTo execute experiments as difficult as these.”<\/p>\n

Xavier exclaims to her, “It’s just a simple potion!”
\nBut Mama cannot hear him on account of the…<\/p>\n

EXPLOSION!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Aw snap snap, that’s an “x” and then some<\/em>. Really, each rhyme brings you as many possible words that begin with the highlighted letter, yet Ashman never makes it sound forced. When you read “Picky Penelope,” just be sure those around you have handkerchiefs, what with all the plosive Ps. <\/p>\n

Come on, you know you want to delight in the devilry and rock the roguery of these cautionary tales. This book is just plain fun. And funny. And hallelujah it does NOT end on some crippling and sappy note about being good. Instead, we get: “And, now, for some advice: \/ Don’t struggle to be perfect, \/ But—on most days—do<\/em> be nice.” Well, now, this is just good advice for all. <\/p>\n

And the illustrations? Have you seen Nancy Carpenter’s work in Jenny Offill’s 17 Things I’m Not Allowed to Do Anymore<\/strong><\/a><\/em>? It’s like that, dear readers — what I am assuming is once again pen-and-ink and digital media, or a merging of her art work and real objects. It’s all hyperactive, spastic, frantic fun in this title, a good match for Ashman’s text. And, what? Is Carpenter the go-to illustrator now for picture books about mischief? Atta girl. I’ll partake in those any time. <\/p>\n

BONUS: See a spread here<\/strong><\/a> at Linda’s site. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alphabet picture books and picture books in rhyme are—admit it—very difficult to do and often done quite poorly. Raise your hand if you pick up an alphabet book and then wonder with a bit of ennui what the author could possibly manage to pull off for the letters “x” and “z” this time. Well, here’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-picture-books"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1435\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}