I love words. I’m just that nerdy. I love the look of them, the sound of them, the way there are so very many of them and they convey so very many different ideas. But sometimes . . . just sometimes . . . there is real magic in a book without any words at all.

(To read the full review, check it out at Noodlenuts Children's Books) ( )

A delightful reissue of an alphabet book originally published in 1963. ( )

My kids picked out this book. My sons loved to trace the string with their fingers. They had fun trying to guess the name of the object on the page, trying to match it to the letter in the alphabet we were supposed to be on.

To read our full review (complete with the kids' opinions!) go to The Reading Tub®.

This book surprised me. I was reading it with my son and we were whizzing along through it, watching the long piece of string loop around all sorts of objects and interesting things; and I was wondering where the author was taking us. Really was without a clue. And we got to the end and I was thinking 'what?!?' and then I came to the page where the author just out and told me what I had missed, and then I went Oooh and smiled and thought to myself that this was a clever little book.

Now of course, the urge is there for me to tell you what this book is about, but I'm going to resist saying because at least some of you, whose minds are also on dinner or homework and such things while you are reading, might miss the clues and come to the end and be surprised by this little book for wee ones too. (No doubt, the more astute and focused observers amongst you will 'get it' before I did. But then again, you've been warned to be on the alert.)

But let me tell you what I can safely say:::
--This book is for toddlers, preschoolers, and some, but not all, kindergartners.
--The ARTWORK is very much like you see on the cover. It's all done in the orangey-red, with images that are simply drawn. (There was at least one where neither my boy or I could determine what sort of mammal it definitively was.)
--This vagueness and the simplicity of shape should appeal to the very young.
--There are no words, just the string linking the drawings. With toddlers and preschoolers I would stress identifying the objects, and even tracing their finger over the string. With 5 year olds, I'm likely to go over it once or twice and then leave it to them to 'read' the book.

Pam T
mom and blogger