An Edward Lear Alphabet

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An acrobatic, alphabetic collection of rhymes and wordplay introduces the youngest of children to each letter of the alphabet and is accompanied by energetic artwork by the illustrator of The Maestro Plays.

25 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1,1983

About the author

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Edward Lear was an English artist, illustrator, musician, author and poet, who is known mostly for his literary nonsense in poetry and prose and especially his limericks, a form he popularised.
His principal areas of work as an artist were threefold: as a draughtsman employed to make illustrations of birds and animals; making coloured drawings during his journeys, which he reworked later, sometimes as plates for his travel books; and as a (minor) illustrator of Alfred Tennyson's poems.
As an author, he is known principally for his popular nonsense collections of poems, songs, short stories, botanical drawings, recipes and alphabets. He also composed and published twelve musical settings of Tennyson's poetry.


Community Reviews

Rating(3.9 / 5.0, 11 votes)
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11 reviews All reviews
March 26,2025
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The book discusses the different letters of the alphabet. A, for example, is an apple pie. The author then tells all of the things that rhyme with that word even if the words are made up. D is for doll so the author rhymes doll with dolly wolly polly, etc. The author switches between animals and objects to teach children the alphabet. The book is very creative and the rhyming is great for grabbing children's attention and helping them remember their alphabet. The author goes through the whole alphabet discussing each of the different letters each with their different descriptions. This book would be great for children who are learning their alphabet. I think the author wrote the book for adults to read to children instead of children reading it themselves. The children would not be able to read some of the words, so I think this book should be read out loud to children.
March 26,2025
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Fun read aloud for kids learning their alphabet. Delightful illustrations from Radunsky, as ever.
March 26,2025
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I was underwhelmed by the repetitive, silly rhymes and the colorful vintage illustrations.
March 26,2025
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This is a fun alphabet book. Each letter is brightly and cleverly illustrated and described in funny rhyme. Example:
O was once a little owl,
Lowly
Prowls
Howly
Lowly
Browny lowly
Little owl.
March 26,2025
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Target Audience: 3-7
This visually stimulating, and sometimes overwhelming book details the alphabet on each page using tongue-twisting rhymes. Overall fun read, this book could definitely be used in the classroom as a way to both practice the alphabet as well as practice decoding difficult or unknown words. Furthermore, the illustrations are so unique from page to page children will enjoy looking at them and perhaps even comparing and contrasting as they go.
March 26,2025
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The letters are drawn too artistically for a young person trying to learn them. But yet, they are inconsistent in their font. For example, one letter will be swirly and pretty (too much so) and another too block. The drawings were good but that is about it.
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