* "Every spread is letter-perfect." — Publishers Weekly, starred review"Visual and verbal puns add to the fun of learning the alphabet, as do the vividly colored, digitally created illustrations that look like animated photographs. Kids will love the "I Spy" aspect of matching letters to the gifts." — Booklist"Children will work on a skill necessary to begin reading as they enjoy the story and the bright, three-dimensional-looking digital illustrations filled with detail." — School Library Journal
"...a playfully surreal sense of scale, volume and detailing...every spread is letter-perfect." -Publishers Weekly
"...Wood's digital illustrations are deliciously crisp and bright..." -Kirkus Reviews
The Barnes & Noble Review
Twenty-five letters of the alphabet embark on a mission to find Little x in this jovial mystery from Audrey and Bruce Wood, the creators of Alphabet Adventure.
When Little x turns up missing one night, the other letters in Charley's alphabet hop aboard a pencil and zoom off to find him. Flying over towns and country fields, the group spots another of Charley's pencils near a castle and makes a b-line downward, only to learn from a crooked capital I that the castle belongs to Master. Once inside, the letters see Little x tap dancing on a xylophone in the presence an overpowering capital M, but when they beckon him to come with, the reply is, "Little x is just a worthless letter back home. At least here I have a job." Fortunately, the letters have a secret up their sleeve about a birthday present for Charley's mother, and after giant M finally lets Little x go (they hit his soft spot, since "mother" begins with him), they hightail it back home, where Charley's gift results in a special job for Little x.
Following the format of their previous alphabet book, the Woods have created another fanciful, letter-filled treat. Bruce Wood's fantastical illustrations will keep young alphabet learners scouring the pages for new things to identify, making these letters a rollicking group of adventurers that kids will love to follow. This alphabet book gets a capital A. Matt Warner
Young readers will enjoy matching objects and letters. The special job for x is to represent kisses on a birthday cake that the unseen child prepares for his mother, a sweet job indeed, though I wonder if at a young age I wouldn't have balked at little x appearing multiple times (''I love you Mom xxxx'') on the frosting of the cake. How does he do that?
— Paul O. Zelinsky
In this follow-up to Alphabet Adventure, mother and son Woods again unleash young Charley's set of three-dimensional, lower-case letters on what is best described as a why-dunit. When the alphabet takes nightly roll call, something isn't right. Little x is missing, and the other 25 letters set off to track him down. They find him at the spooky castle of the ominously green Giant M (for Master) and discover that their comrade has become a captive but willing court musician ("tap-dancing a lullaby on a xylophone"). "I ran away because Charley never uses me," Little x whines. But when Little i (whose missing dot was the subject of the previous volume) explains Charley's plans for Little x in his mother's birthday surprise, the errant letter agrees to escape-a plan that turns out to be unnecessary, since the hulking M is really a big softie. Once again, Bruce Wood's super-saturated, digital pictures bubble with a playfully surreal sense of scale, volume and detailing, as he first shows the alphabet quaking in the shadow of M, then the Giant M blubbering-"I have a mother too"-as teardrops splash on the letters' surface. Whether the abecadarian cast is sailing to and from the castle on their pencil rocket, or picking out a present for Charley's mother from Giant M's treasure room (Little f picks a fan, Little n picks a necklace, etc.), every spread is letter-perfect. Ages 3-up. (Sept.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
PreS-Gr 2-A story that invites participation and promotes letter recognition. When Little x disappears from Charley's Alphabet, the rest of the letters search for him, finding him in the castle of Master M. To their surprise, he does not want to be rescued, because he is useful there unlike at home, where Charley seldom uses him. When Master M awakes and threatens to use the letters in soup, Little x comes to the rescue and they all return home safely. There, Charley helps his dad decorate a birthday cake for his mother, and he uses Little x four times-because it is the only letter that stands for kisses. As in Alphabet Adventure (Scholastic, 2001), children will work on a skill necessary to begin reading as they enjoy the story and the bright, three-dimensional-looking digital illustrations filled with detail.-Margaret R. Tassia, Millersville University, PA Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Twenty-five lowercase letters go in search of the runaway Little x in the sequel to Alphabet Adventure (2001) by this mother-and-son team. They find him in a castle inhabited by the menacing Master M. "A little x is just a worthless letter back home," Little x explains to his pals while dancing on a xylophone for the Master's amusement. "At least here I have a job." Readers will notice that the other letters employ words that begin with their names all the time (" 'This is terrible,' Little T said"). All ends happily, but the story is nothing more than a feeble excuse for the art. The younger Wood's digital illustrations are deliciously crisp and bright. The 3-D-style images pop with detail, giving young readers plenty of opportunity to match letters and objects. Still, it may be a stretch to call this a concept book. (Picture book. 5-7)
