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Summary
Summary
From Caldecott Honor winner Anita Lobel comes this delightful day, from A to Z.
Twenty-six playful pigs wake in their pen ready for an adventure. They trot down a country road and discover a field full of surprises!
There's an A for Amanda Pig to admire.
A B for Billy Pig to balance on.
And Clara Pig found a C that looks like it could use a good cleaning!
By the time they return to their pen that night, the playful pigs have happily oinked their way through the alphabet.
From the Hardcover edition.
Author Notes
Anita Lobel (née Kempler) was born on June 2, 1934. She is a Polish-American illustrator of children's books, including A New Coat for Anna, This Quiet Lady, Alison's Zinnia, and On Market Street, which won a Caldecott Honor for illustrations. One Lighthouse, One Moon, one of two books she created about her cat, Nini, is a New York Times Best Illustrated Book. Her childhood memoir, No Pretty Pictures, was a finalist for the National Book Award.
Lobel was born in Krakow, Poland. She was forced to hide in a convent during WWII, but was captured by the Nazis. She and her brother were forced to go into a concentration camp in Germany; they were rescued in 1945 by the Swedish Red Cross. They were lucky to be reunited with their parents in 1947. In 1952, her family moved to New York, and she then attended Pratt Institute for Art. Lobel graduated with a B. F. A. in Fine Arts. Lobel met her husband, Arnold, at Pratt while acting in a play.
Anita's major works include: Alison's Zinnias, Sven's Bridge, On Market Street, and One Lighthouse, One Moon. She has been nominated for numerous awards including selections for the Best Illustrated Book from New York Times Book Reviews (Sven's Bridge, On Market Street and One Lighthouse, One Moon). On Market Street also received a Caldecott Honor Book Award, a Boston Globe/Horn Book Award (illustration), and is an American Book Award finalist.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (2)
School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 1-Lobel adds another alphabet book to her repertoire with this verb-oriented porcine piece. While exploring, 26 pigs find the "magical surprises" of letters. Each pig proceeds to pose with a letter matching their name and depicted action, captioned by brief alliterative statements, starting with "Amanda Pig admired an A." Each picture also includes an object, typically flowers or produce, in one of the bottom corners that begins with the same letter, though they are not labeled. This creates a fun "Easter egg" hunt for kids to enjoy, although many of the letter-object pairings are quite obscure (K, Q, U, and Y in particular). Crossing the patterns of folk art with tentatively cartooned pigs in gouache and watercolor, the illustrations are comforting and lovely but unchallenging. Lobel's skill is most apparent in the freely curving string of pigs on the title page. The later pages are constrained by colored frames with capital letters in formal serif type across the top and lower case across the bottom. Unfortunately the overall feel comes across as very static, especially with the repetitive landscape of bumpy green hills, strings of red-dot flowers, and blue mountains found in every frame. VERDICT Despite the winning, whimsical artwork, this ABC book lacks the interest and punch to replace many current alphabet favorites.-Erin Reilly-Sanders, Ohio State University, Columbus © Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Horn Book Review
Twenty-six pigs wake up in their pen and decide to explore the countryside, running down the road and finding a field of magical surprises: brightly colored, freestanding letters of the alphabet. Lobels soft early-morning watercolors give way to bolder pages on which each pig is now clothed and standing upright. The entire alphabet, set in a distinctive condensed typeface, runs along the top and bottom borders while each pig interacts happily with a single tall, thin letterform (all are upper-case but i). Lobel uses a name-verb-letter structure (Amanda Pig admired an A. Billy Pig balanced on a B), with rolling hills below and plenty of white space behind the pig and letter. Repeat readers will spot an extra object beginning with the letter in question tucked into a lower corner. Gender roles are satisfyingly relaxed: Greta, a female soldier, guards the G, while on the opposite page Hugo tenderly hugs an H. By the time Yolanda yawns and Zeke zzzs, evening has arrived and the pigs return to their pen in a mirror image of the opening spreads, once again unclothed and running on all fours. Dinner is followed by bedtime, with all twenty-six snuggled together cozily. This playful treatment creates a humorous, easygoing book that should relieve any anxiety about learning the alphabet. lolly robinson (c) Copyright 2015. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
