Take Away the A

Take away the R and the writer has to write... Okay, while that doesn't really work, author Michael Escoffier and illustrator Kris Di Giacomo DO make it work in their own alphabet picture book titled Take Away the A (2014).

Sure, there are hundreds (probably thousands, or more!) of alphabet picture books out there from which to choose. Escoffier, however, deviates from the usual 'A stands for Apple' format. In fact, no letter stands for anything in Take Away the A. The author, instead, takes each letter away from a word and completely transforms it into another word. As an example, for the letter X Escoffier says, "Without the X, FOXES are FOES."

This cleverly written and illustrated alphabet book does more than teach children the ABC's. It also shows them how they work and how changing one letter in a word can completely change the meaning of the word. By doing this, it introduces some wonderful words into young children's vocabularies, such as foes, faqir and scarf. The poignant illustrations help to make the point as to what happens when you take each letter out of the word in which it is used.

I'm looking forward to reading this one with my own kindergartners. I feel certain that it will garner some discussion as to what changes have taken place, as well as learning some new vocabulary. And learning the alphabet, of course!