In An Alphabet of Celebrities, writer and artist Oliver Herford attempts a more sophisticated look at the traditional alphabet book. Aimed at a literate adult rather than the more traditional pre-schooler, this alphabet incorporates famed individuals real and fictitious from art, literature, science, politics with a cut-off point of 1900. The short poems are whimsical, selecting from an entire thesaurus of words while still retaining a recognizable rhythm, and the accompanying drawings are also quite well done.
Further, the author (a) included an index in which each participant in the 26 poems are listed with the poem in which they are featured, their hand-drawn image, and a brief 2 or 3 short sentences biography. There is also a short glossary, just in case anyone has problems with the words that Mr. Herford selected for this volume.
On the other hand
There were plenty of little annoyances with this book. To begin with, I did NOT know who many of the individuals were, and was constantly flipping to and from the index in order to find out. (Few if any are identified by anything other tha first name OR last name OR title.) I would have preferred that this feature accompany the text rather than be inserted after it. (Conversely, the poem itself is reprinted in the Index but using a font size far too small for this reader to make out without a magnifying glass. There was plenty of white space don't skimp on the ink next time!)
I appreciate the author codifying a set of rules for the characters included in his rhymes. I wish he had actually included a prologue listing those criteria, rather than having the publisher add it to the back cover blurb. Further, I wish the author would have added one additional rule be consistent with the selection by LAST NAME (unless the individual had none, or was commonly known ONLY by first name). O IS for Oliver, but why did you not include him under C for Cromwell? And TITLES?? C'mon, Kaiser? Queen? You could have opted for different celebrities in those cases. (Admittedly, Q would be tough - Quisling didn't come into play until World War II, while Dan Quayle and the Quaid brothers are even more current, but how about Quasimodo? I think the book would have been a bit more of a challenge BUT more rewarding in the end had the author maintained a bit higher guiding writing principle.
In the end, it's just an entertaining piece of fluff, but we all need something like that from time to time.
RATING: 4 stars.
DISCLOSURE: This book was provided free of charge by the publisher without obligation although I'm sure they and the author will appreciate an unbiased posted review, and will be grateful (or perhaps relieved) that it is largely positive.
Further, the author (a) included an index in which each participant in the 26 poems are listed with the poem in which they are featured, their hand-drawn image, and a brief 2 or 3 short sentences biography. There is also a short glossary, just in case anyone has problems with the words that Mr. Herford selected for this volume.
On the other hand
There were plenty of little annoyances with this book. To begin with, I did NOT know who many of the individuals were, and was constantly flipping to and from the index in order to find out. (Few if any are identified by anything other tha first name OR last name OR title.) I would have preferred that this feature accompany the text rather than be inserted after it. (Conversely, the poem itself is reprinted in the Index but using a font size far too small for this reader to make out without a magnifying glass. There was plenty of white space don't skimp on the ink next time!)
I appreciate the author codifying a set of rules for the characters included in his rhymes. I wish he had actually included a prologue listing those criteria, rather than having the publisher add it to the back cover blurb. Further, I wish the author would have added one additional rule be consistent with the selection by LAST NAME (unless the individual had none, or was commonly known ONLY by first name). O IS for Oliver, but why did you not include him under C for Cromwell? And TITLES?? C'mon, Kaiser? Queen? You could have opted for different celebrities in those cases. (Admittedly, Q would be tough - Quisling didn't come into play until World War II, while Dan Quayle and the Quaid brothers are even more current, but how about Quasimodo? I think the book would have been a bit more of a challenge BUT more rewarding in the end had the author maintained a bit higher guiding writing principle.
In the end, it's just an entertaining piece of fluff, but we all need something like that from time to time.
RATING: 4 stars.
DISCLOSURE: This book was provided free of charge by the publisher without obligation although I'm sure they and the author will appreciate an unbiased posted review, and will be grateful (or perhaps relieved) that it is largely positive.
