Absolutely Beastly Children

PreS-Gr 1—With a large variety of well-written alphabet books from which to choose, this one is an additional purchase. Some mild rhyming couplets, "A is for Andy/who won't eat his peas. B/is for/Becky who cannot say please," are followed by "X/is for Xander/who farts in a crowd, Y/is for/Yoshi/whose parents aren't proud." Percy pulls the wings off flies, which is cause for condemnation, but should Sigmund, who still wets the bed, be put in the same category? (Granted, in this case, Sigmund does appear to have done this on purpose.) Many highlighted letters have couplets that don't rhyme ("walls" and "called," "time" and "whine," "teeth" and "feet," "zoo" and "food"), and four don't scan well. Colorful, digitally rendered illustrations are humorous and/or gross and are set on a clean white background. Some libraries may find a place for this catalog of unlovely children, but most can pass on it.—Maryann H. Owen, Racine Public Library, WI