The Alphabet Thief

by Bill Richardson, Roxanna Bikadoroff (Illustrator)

Overview

When night falls, along comes a peculiar thief who steals each letter of the alphabet, creating a topsy-turvy world as she goes.

The alphabet thief stole all of the B’s, and all of the bowls became owls…

It seems that no one can stop her, until the Z’s finally send her to sleep so that all the other letters can scamper back to where they belong.

Bill Richardson’s zany rhymes and Roxanna Bikadoroff’s hilarious illustrations will delight young readers with the silly fun they can have with language — and may even inspire budding young writers and artists to create their own word games.

Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.K.4
Ask and answer questions about unknown words in a text.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781554988778
Publisher:	Groundwood Books
Publication date:	03/01/2017
Pages:	40
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 7.38(h) x 0.50(d)
Lexile:	650L (what's this?)
Age Range:	5 - 8 Years

About the Author

BILL RICHARDSON, winner of Canada’s Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour, and former radio host, has written several highly acclaimed books for children. They include The Aunts Come Marching, illustrated by Cynthia Nugent, winner of the Time to Read Award; After Hamelin, winner of the Ontario Library Association’s Silver Birch Award; and The Alphabet Thief, illustrated by Roxanna Bikadoroff, named among New York Library's Best Books for Kids. Bill lives in Vancouver, British Columbia.

ROXANNA BIKADOROFF’s illustrations have been published internationally for more than twenty-five years. She has won numerous awards, many of them National Magazine Awards, including Best Illustration (Gold). She recently collaborated with Bill Richardson on a collection of poems for adults as well as on her first children’s book, The Alphabet Thief. Roxanna lives in Vancouver.

Read an Excerpt

The Alphabet Thief was daring and smart.
When the night was silent and black,
She stole all the letters, she gathered them up
And took them away in her sack.

* * *

The Alphabet Thief stole all of the B’s,
And all of the bowls became owls.
All of the brats were turned into rats,
And when Bill became ill, how he howled.

* * *

Can nobody stop the Alphabet Thief?
Can nobody end her spree?
Can somebody best her, can someone arrest her
Before she takes all of the G’s?

Editorial Reviews

The story is told in brisk, rhyming stanzas, by a determined, redheaded sleuth. The wordplay is fun…Throughout, Roxanna Bikadoroff's lively spot illustrations deftly keep pace as the altered words pile up.

The New York Times Book Review - Jon Agee

★ 01/09/2017
Richardson and Bikadoroff reveal just how important letters are as the eponymous Alphabet Thief—who looks one part witch, one part rogue musketeer—goes on a crime spree, stealing one letter at a time. The result: madcap linguistic chaos, which Richardson describes with glee in rhymes that never take a false step: “The Alphabet Thief stole all of the I’s./ The maid was made mad in a glance./ And artists at easels would rather have measles./ Than find that their paints were now pants.” Bikadoroff’s airy ink-and-watercolor portraits are just as much fun, and the book’s small trim size and big sense of fun make it a smart pick for language lovers of any age. Ages 5–9. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

The text will inspire a passion for humorous wordplay.

Booklist

The wordplay is fun … Roxanna Bikadoroff's lively spot illustrations deftly keep pace as the altered words pile up.

New York Times

The clever story in rhyme and playful ink-and-watercolor illustrations depicting word transformations make this small book one to add to my collection of alphabet books.

Literacy Daily

A fun romp that lends itself to both quiety amused solo reading and boisterous read-aloud sessions.

STARRED REVIEW Quill & Quire

A small and hilarious picture book … Pictures and verses seem to tumble over one another …

The Wall Street Journal

Praise for The Alphabet Thief

New York Public Library Best Books for Kids 2017

NCTE Notable Children's Books in the Language Arts

"A smart pick for language lovers of any age." — Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW

"The wordplay is fun … Roxanna Bikadoroff's lively spot illustrations deftly keep pace as the altered words pile up." — New York Times

"This sneaky romp will do well one-on-one." — Kirkus Reviews

"Sure to delight wordsmiths of all ages. A fun read-aloud that lends itself to curricular application." — School Library Journal

"The text will inspire a passion for humorous wordplay." — Booklist

"A small and hilarious picture book … Pictures and verses seem to tumble over one another …" — The Wall Street Journal

"The clever story in rhyme and playful ink-and-watercolor illustrations depicting word transformations make this small book one to add to my collection of alphabet books." — Literacy Daily

Praise for The First Little Bastard to Call Me Gramps

"These poems are brilliant. They gleam with Bill Richardson's wit and deep humanity. It’s a collection of silly verse, profound insights, and deeply moving passages that will make you smile. This book is not a confection, it is a feast! Hilarious and shockingly human."— Louise Penny, author of Still Life

From the Publisher

01/01/2017
K-Gr 2—The Alphabet Thief steals each letter of the alphabet, creating linguistic chaos. Can she be stopped? Not until she steals A's through Z's in the most predictable order. This clever story shows readers the result of verbal irony in its images again and again. Playful illustrations provide concrete examples, portraying baths as bats, poets as pets, horses as hoses, squashes as sashes, and many other silly transmutations. As a read-aloud, this rhyming tale is bound to lead to creative conversation about the textual and illustrative depictions of odd things left in odd situations as letters disappear from their words. Readers may be tempted to try their own letter thieving, dropping letters from words to make other recognizable words. VERDICT Sure to delight wordsmiths of all ages. A fun read-aloud that lends itself to curricular application.—Lindsay Persohn, University of South Florida, Tampa

School Library Journal

2016-11-23
In rhyming text, this nontraditional alphabet book playfully depicts a thief in the act of stealing the letters of the alphabet from A to Z. "The Alphabet Thief stole all of the A's, / And all of the coats became cots. / All of the fairs were turned into firs, / And all of the boats became bots." The verse never falters as the thief makes her way through the alphabet. Clever handling of the letter Q pairs it with U, turning "queasy" into "easy" and "squash" into "sash." What the black-cloaked thief doesn't see is that she is being followed by the narrator, a red-haired, white sleuth in beret and ponytail with a dog sidekick. Can they stop this terrible thief? Of course. The gumshoe takes all the Y's and Z's, turns them into slingshots and "ammo" and fires them at the thief, who promptly falls asleep. The ink-and-watercolor illustrations share space with the text in energetically varied layouts, the diminutive trim reminiscent of the old Nutshell Library books. The ending poses a small problem for libraries by addressing readers: "And who was the hero who saved the day? / It was me! You can write my name here." While the larger format of the similarly themed Take Away the A, by Michaël Escoffier and Kris Di Giacomo (2014), is more suitable for group sharing, this sneaky romp will do well one-on-one. (Picture book. 5-8)

Kirkus Reviews