Following up on her hit picture book 7 Ate 9: The Untold Story Tara Lazar brings readers another clever take on our alphabet system, specifically capitalized letters.

The super sleuth begins to search for clues, hoping to enlist the assistance of punctuation marks. They are busy. Hyphens dashes around, apostrophe gathers personal possessions, while ampersand minds her p's and q's. Lazar is a master of the well-placed pun.
Eventually Private I returns to waitress little b at Café Uno. Together they locate the missing letters and rescue them from a theater marque. "I'd always wanted to see my name in lights."
Tranquility is restored. Or is it? The final page suggests that there will be more mysteries for Private I.

The Upper Case trailer

Alphabuild magnetic blocks

Bake alphabet cookies

Originally published in 2006, Compestine’s celebration of Chinese New Year, also known as Lunar New Year, is a vibrant compendium of Chinese culture. Presented in an alphabetical format, readers observe youngsters as they prepare for and participate in this annual fifteen-day  traditional festival.

Children anticipate New Year by crafting messages on red paper and getting haircuts. Enjoy mouth-watering traditional foods: noodles, oranges, roast duck, and dumplings. Join in the celebrating with kites, lanterns, incense, and firecrackers.

Xuan’s illustrations are replete with gorgeous jewel colors.  Soft yellow backgrounds play up the vibrant reds.

He seamlessly blends images across the gutter, skillfully joining two distinct concepts into one image. Objects such as the imposing dragon figure span an entire two-page spread. This creature is magnificent!

Newbery Award-winning author illustrator Grace Lin celebrates the New Year.

Learn to read and write basic Chinese characters with Chineasy created by ShaoLan.

Make delicious dumplings with author and cook Ying Chang Compestine.

Caitlin McDonagh explores possible life choices in this charming picture book. The alphabet serves as a template for exploring career options. Most pages are divided into quandrants showcasing a quartet of possibilities. For example, the letter L page illustrates a landscaper, lawyer, librarian, and lifeguard.  Amazingly, there are four careers for the letter X: xerophytic gardener, xylophone player, x-ray technician, and exobiologist. Less familiar careers can pique curiosity and send youngsters researching, which can promote some interesting discussions. 
Personal note: As a Kindergartner, my son learned the word "paleontologist" and declared that was what he wanted to be when he "grew up."  For him, cool word equaled cool careers.

Caitlin McDonagh is a 24 year old, Queens, New York native. She attended The Fashion Institute of Technology where she graduated Magna Cum Laude with a BFA in Illustration and minors in English and Art History. ​
Visit her online.

What makes a graphic design stand out? An examination of art created by Ford provides opportunities for observation. Why not distribute copies of these books to budding artists and discuss principles of effective design. Ask: How does the artist use color, contrast, size, scale, shape, and placement to create a graphic that is interesting and informative?

Students might be encouraged to try making a graphic design. A common item that students have is a backpack. Why not create graphic designs based on "What's in my backpack?" or "What's in my lunchbox?"

Always up for a challenge, I decided to try making a graphic design using an item from my lunchbox. (In this case it is a chocolate chip cookie.)  Of course, that meant I would be starting with a capital letter "C."
​After locating a few simple materials, I was on my way.
Solid colored heavy printer paper seemed like a logical choice for a background material.  Scissors helped a free-form cookie take shape. I added pops of color with some yellow and purple post-it notes. Waxy brown crayon markings served as the chocolate chips. A hole punch made short work on the remaining scraps and gave the design some pizzazz.
Using children's board books to teach students principles of graphic design is a fresh and fun approach to teaching visual arts. This activity is suitable for students of all ages

Medina has done it again! ABC Pasta: An Entertaining Alphabet follows up on 1 Big Salad: A Delicious Counting Book with artfully designed pages that combine stunning photos with clever illustrations to create another picture book filled with WOW!
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​This alphabet book is a primer for budding pasta enthusiasts.  A shopping trip to the market's pasta aisle will open minds to exciting design, alphabet, and gastronomic possibilities.
As a bonus Medina includes a recipe for Cacio e Pepe

​So long same-old alphabet soup. Goodbye boring blue box Mac & Cheese. This is the way pasta was meant to be enjoyed!