an alphabet of stories

Once Upon an Alphabet: Short Stories for All the Letters, written and illustrated by Oliver Jeffers
published in 2014 by Philomel Books

In keeping with the nature of this book, an anacrostic will do to intoduce it to you.

Once Upon an Alphabet is…

An alphabet book with a tiny-tiny story for every letter of the alphabet,
Bound to please both boys and girls,
Cartwheeling with curious characters, such as
Danger Delilah and
Edmund the Astronaut (who has a…
Fear of heights.)
Given that Oliver Jeffers wrote it, you can be certain it is
Highly creative,
Imaginative, with
Jaunty illustrations that
Knit together the look and tone of these diverse tales
Like
Marmalade on toast. That is to say..
Nicely.
Outstandingly Offbeat,
Peculiarly pleasing, and
Quite Quirky, this new book with its
Really-bright cantaloupe cover is
Stuffed with stories —
Twenty-six of them, to be exact.
Up to you whether you
Vroom through them all at once or
Winkle around here and there. It’s
X-tra fun to backtrack through these
Yarns and spot characters popping up repeatedly, all the way from A to…
Zeppelin.

Okay. That was unusual. But this is an unusual book. These are really-really-really teeny stories — some

just a limerick-long — yet they manage to tell a tale. Your imaginations and funny bones will be tickled by the nonsensical and out-of-the-blue characters that alight in your world courtesy of Jeffers. It’s like a confetti-storm of story, so like the swift, imaginative stories kids dream up. A sunny pleasure for ages 4 and up.