Thursday, April 21, 2022

The ABC book by Lyn Gray with verses by Ian Souter


As I previously mentioned I have been collecting alphabet books in preparation for a talk I am doing with Dr Robin Morrow for IBBY Australia. Today some friends and I were at a charity book fair and I spied quite a few alphabet books but this one really caught my eye and since it was only $1, I picked it up. (An internet bookseller has a used copy of this book listed for $64 including delivery - I think I scored a bargain)

I imagine this book from 1996 was originally written as some sort of instructional text. At the front of there is a word list which sorts all of the words into nouns, adjectives and verbs. This page is not really needed - I just enjoyed the rhymes and word play and mini stories attached to each letter. Here are a few that tickled my fancy:

"Dinky the Dinosaur was desperate to dance with a dreamy-eyed dragon - it led to romance; for they jived and they dived to a disco swing and declared their love with a diamond ring."

"Lion and Leopard worked in a library at night while ladybird searched for books by lamplight; And lizard with lollipop was seen by Miss Tut who politely announced 'It's late - time to shut!."

"A lively little zebra wanted a change of view, so with the other zebras zigzagged out of the zoo; but when a zip was unzipped there lay a surprise for the lively little zebra was a child in disguise."

Of course this book is long out of print. 

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