Reviews: (by author)

Murphy, Mary. The Alphabet Keeper. New York: Knopf, 2003. $14.95. ISBN 0-375-82347-6.

The alphabet keeper is dumpy, grumpy , and nasty enough to keep the letters locked in a cage. They escape and fly around the room "each letter making its own sound"-a clue to adults that they can use the illustrations to sound out the letters. If they do so, it'll be on a later rereading of the book, because the story zips along cleverly. The letters elude the keeper by inserting or removing themselves from the narrative of how the keeper is planning to recapture them. For example, she chases them into the park, but "p turns upside down and the park turns into a bark!" And in the humorous, colorful flat illustrations,a little dog bursts through a narrative frame and chases the keeper. b turns backward and it becomes dark; the keeper can't see. But the keeper keeps coming in a series of funny situations culminating in an unexpected twist.

More an adventure story calling attention to the letters than an alphabet book per se, The Alphabet Keeper is a treat for children learning to read and for those who read to them.

Recommended.

A.A. Spring 2003

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