Recommended by Cressida H.

An alphabet origin story: "For as long as any letter could remember, Vowels and Consonants had been enemies..." Consonant parents warn their children against playing with vowels, and vice versa. Eventually, dislike and distrust explode into all-out war. But when an "evil scribble" interrupts, a young letter y brings an idea to the vowel and consonant commanders, and four brave letters - STOP - march out against the scribble. "I can't fight that...Next they'll make paragraphs...pages...chapters," says the scrawl, and rolls out of town. The vowels and consonants, brought together by a common enemy, finally realize the good they can do together. ( )

I guess this is a boy-friendly" book.  I thought there was too much emphasis on the war, the strategies, the battles.  The common enemy that brought all the letters together was well-done, but then the end was a bit abrupt.  Not for tots, but maybe for those age 6 or 7 who are still struggling a bit to sound out new words.  The 'sometimes' Y bit was excellent - shades of the American Civil War's house divided...." ( )

This is a fun fantasy book about the day the vowels and consonants went to war, then had to unite their forces against the scary scribble and thus created words. This would be a great mentor text for a variety of phonics lessons as well as for conversations about conflict. ( )

Hynes Library:
A silly tale of how the vowels and consonants became friends. The illustrations are funny and help the story flow. ( )

Am I the only person who finds children's books to be the best books around? Maybe I should write All I Really Need to Read I Read in Kindergarten. Recommended. ( )