Seeking One Alphabet Book to Rule them All...

[mathmarm]

So, what is the best ABC book you've ever found? Why is it better than (most of) all the others?

[Rosie_0801]

Can't be done. They're kind of addictive.  :huh:

 

 

Dd's favourite was 'A is for Annabelle' by Tasha Tudor. That was the only book she ever tried to memorise. Probably not the best recommendation if you have a boy. 

[silver]

If you want the best one for educational purposes, I'd go with Doodling Dragons, as it includes all the sounds of each letter (rather than just the most common sound).

 

If you just want a more typical alphabet book, my particular favorite is A is for Angry. We love Sandra Boynton, and I like that the words are adjectives rather than just nouns.

[tshirtyogapantmama]

I'll be following...my son loves ABC books and we could use a couple that focus on the sounds. 

[Tanaqui]

Superhero ABC, though I have a real fondness for The Absolutely Awful ABC. Oh, and Alison Jay has one that's wonderful!

[73349]

For humor, you can't beat "Z is for Moose."

[reign]

As toddlers my girls liked Max and Ruby's ABCs which can get tedious to read five times a day. A little bit older and they loved A is for Muskox. Now that book is hilarious.

[kubiac]

Curious George Learns the Alphabet, because it teaches both upper and lower case (on opposite pages, but separately) and because the author uses visual "mnemonics" to help describe how the letters look and what's distinct about that shape as opposed to the other 51 letter shapes.

 

I find that many alphabet books are really just vocabulary books or art books with the abecedary as the hook, but that aren't particularly useful for teaching letters! That said, the most beautiful vocabulary-art style book we have is Bruno Munari's ABC. It's just lovely and flows perfectly.

 

When you're ready to teach letter sounds (either before or after letter names, depending on your approach), there's a book I found through the hive called Abadaba Alphabet. It comes with a CD (wherein the book is read aloud by Jim Weiss) and it is full of ridiculous earworm rhymes that teach the letter sounds. But really you could/should just use the Leap Frog Letter Factory DVD for that.

[wendyroo]

For the very youngest listeners, I love Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. My babies have loved its rhythm and bright colors and the "Oh, no!!".

 

Then we move to simple ABC books; we have many.

 

As soon as my boys were ready for longer books, they fell in love with the Jerry Pallota alphabet books.

 

Wendy

[DhanyaCali]

Oooh Chicka Chicka Boom Boom has been a BIG hit here too.

 

My son learned the names of all the letters from reading "The Cat in the Hat Comes Back" a lot at age 2-ish.

 

ETA: We did sounds later, at age 3 when he wanted to "do school," we didn't use a book for that just classic preschool "letter of the week" type stuff.

[MeAndTheBoys]

This book is beautiful--  "Museum ABC"

 

http://www.amazon.com/Museum-ABC-NY-Metropolitan-Art/dp/0316071706/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1417276361&sr=8-1&keywords=museum+alphabet+book

 

Out of all the gazillion we have had, it has had the most staying power.  Chicka Chicka Boom Boom was a hit with DS1 but neither of the other ones liked it.  Dr. Seuss ABC is ridiculous, IMO (and my kids didn't like it much either).  Lots of other cute ones--

 

But this Met one can be used BEYOND recognizing letters :) and even when they boys were little, they were fascinated by the pictures.

 

And no, we're not a highly cultured "everything must be sophisticated" family :)  I only bought this book because Sonlight had it REALLY cheap one Christmas.

 

B--

[NoseInABook]

Dr. Seuss' ABC Book and Chicka Chicka Boom Boom were my kids' favorites.