All around the city, artist Stephen T. Johnson sees letters. Can you see them too? In bridges, on park benches, down busy city streets, the artist painted twenty six realistic scenes that house the twenty six letters of our alphabet. Tender still lifes, framed by blank white space, this story needs no text as it walks the reader through a playful game of Eye-Spy, one page at a time. As the cover reveals an "A" in a workhorse, before you even open the book you'll be wondering where the next letter will emerge in this playful, quiet, subversive book. Like a good poem, the simplicity of the title and layout effectively communicates what this artist is up to. Arguably for all ages, children 3 and up are ideal partners for this read. Grades 3 and up would benefit from their own version of the game.
For the toolkit:
Art activity for grade 3 and up: Gather materials from outside or a recycling bin and make an alphabet city of ones' own.
For younger children, it is helpful to sit and look through the pictures with the child, tracing the shape of the letter with fingers, then on to transparent paper traced over the illustration. Showing the reader where the letter fits on top of the picture, contrasting the letter written on the page and the letter found and traced. This would also be a good activity for beginning writers to trace themselves on copies of the images.
For older children grades 4 and up, a photo-ABC hunt could be a way to practice seeing new shapes inside of ordinary objects much like the artist did in the paintings.
You may also like:
ABZZZZ... by Isabel Minhós Martins and Yara Kono is a clever alphabet book that, much like Johnson's Alphabet City, asks the reader to look differently at the alphabet. "A" is for awake and "Z" is for , you guessed it, "zzz...". An arguably older ABC book for beginning readers, this will help bridge letter and concepts related in the context of whole ideas coming from individual words.
Work: An Occupational ABC by Kellen Hetenaka is a whimsical revisit for older grades 3-6 that uses the alphabet to explore occupational possibilities from "B" for butcher to "O" for oceanographer. A visual gift to look at, designer Hetenaka draws round and colorful figures up to all kinds of fun work.
The ABC Bunny by Wanda Gag. Sometimes, a good old read aloud is JUST the thing. This is one of those beautifully rhythmic and rhyming books that are gorgeous and quiet and musical to read. You can hear the quiet beauty of Alphabet City's paintings in this always inspiring classic.
Alphabet City by Stephen T. Johnson
Viking Books for Young readers
October 1995
$17.99
32pp
Ages 3-7
Art activity for grade 3 and up: Gather materials from outside or a recycling bin and make an alphabet city of ones' own.
For younger children, it is helpful to sit and look through the pictures with the child, tracing the shape of the letter with fingers, then on to transparent paper traced over the illustration. Showing the reader where the letter fits on top of the picture, contrasting the letter written on the page and the letter found and traced. This would also be a good activity for beginning writers to trace themselves on copies of the images.
For older children grades 4 and up, a photo-ABC hunt could be a way to practice seeing new shapes inside of ordinary objects much like the artist did in the paintings.
You may also like:
ABZZZZ... by Isabel Minhós Martins and Yara Kono is a clever alphabet book that, much like Johnson's Alphabet City, asks the reader to look differently at the alphabet. "A" is for awake and "Z" is for , you guessed it, "zzz...". An arguably older ABC book for beginning readers, this will help bridge letter and concepts related in the context of whole ideas coming from individual words.
Work: An Occupational ABC by Kellen Hetenaka is a whimsical revisit for older grades 3-6 that uses the alphabet to explore occupational possibilities from "B" for butcher to "O" for oceanographer. A visual gift to look at, designer Hetenaka draws round and colorful figures up to all kinds of fun work.
The ABC Bunny by Wanda Gag. Sometimes, a good old read aloud is JUST the thing. This is one of those beautifully rhythmic and rhyming books that are gorgeous and quiet and musical to read. You can hear the quiet beauty of Alphabet City's paintings in this always inspiring classic.
Alphabet City by Stephen T. Johnson
Viking Books for Young readers
October 1995
$17.99
32pp
Ages 3-7