Some alphabet books are pretty basic. They show words and/or pictures related to the letters. They do their job of helping kids learn the alphabet (and read), but are otherwise forgettable.
That’s definitely not the case with Corinna Luykin’s 2023 picture book ABC and you and me.
One major difference is that it starts by addressing readers directly and inviting them to bend and move–and showing bodies in motion. This direct address and invitation to move returns every few pages, giving a break from the alphabet.
Once it gets to the letters, it shows people (adults and kids) forming the shape of each letter, both capitalized and lower case. This is fun and inventive, and will surely lead kids to try to recreate some of the shapes.
In addition to the folks bending and twisting to form letters, there is at least one object starting with the letter in the picture, and sometimes more. So, attentive readers see apples balanced on top of the women (mother and daughter?) making A and a. Readers like me who focus on the body shapes may miss this at first, and need to double back once they realize it. (And there’s an “Object Key” at the end of the book readers can use to nudge their attention and/or remind themselves of specific words. For example, I saw the shoes on the W page as just shoes, and didn’t pay them any more attention than the clothes worn. The Object Key nudged me to recognize them as wingtips.) Both the shapes and the objects nudge readers to go through the book multiple times, which will help kids learn the alphabet.
Finally, this book is quietly but methodically inclusive. People of all ethnic backgrounds appear on these pages, as well as people with different degrees of mobility, so a kid in a wheelchair bends and twists with others, another forms the lower case m, and a girl standing with the help of forearm support crutches forms the lower case l.
I enjoyed this book (except for the nagging wish that I had done it first) and respect it, and think kids and teachers would enjoy and benefit from it too.
