The Accidental Zucchini: An Unexpected Alphabet

by Max Grover

In Max Grover’s zany alphabet book, ordinary objects become fresh and new, while the extraordinary suddenly look familiar. Chew the fat with a neighbor over your Fork Fence! Ride the Macaroni Merry-go-round for the twirl of your life! And, heavens, hope for sunshine if you’re wearing your Umbrella Underwear! “A funny, loopy variation of a standard, bound to inspire youngsters to whip up their own weird wordings.”-- Publishers Weekly

Genres: Picture Books, Animals

36 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

Reviews

[Yates Marie]

It is an alphabet book. There are 2 words on each page. A lot of the pages use describing words. This is a very culturally diverse book. The pictures in the book are very kid friendly. younger children might have a problem with some of the words in the book.

[Abby Lindberg]

The Accidental Zucchini: An Unexpected Alphabet is simply an alphabet book, but with a twist. Max Grover makes the alphabet so fun and interactive with his words and his illustrations. For example, for the letter "L" it has "Letter ladders." The picture he has drawn us has individuals that have to climb ladders to get to their letters in the mail. Each page in the book has been carefully thought out. As a future teacher, it would be fun for the younger kiddos and to have this book read out loud then the kids get to choose a letter they want to use and create a funny image to go with that letter. Another idea for the kiddos is to have your whole class assigned letter and make your own classroom alphabet book. This would also be fun for really young kids at home with letter recognition and alphabet knowledge with families at home. Overall, fun book with fun illustrations.

[Cheryl]

Mostly weird, sometimes downright surreal. I have to admit that Octopus Overalls made me smile, but overall the only use that I can think of for this is as a mentor text. I'm sure your students will come up with much better entries for most of the letters.

[Anne, Unfinished Woman]

Clever, colorful and unusual combining of words for a delightful alphabet book.

[Sandy]

An amusing alphabet book. Similar to many others.

[Michael Walters]

This book is so amazing you can read the book in alphabetical order and you can also study ever day and ever night☺☺

[Kelly Anderson]

I think I'm getting too hung up on the fact that there is NO ZUCCHINIS in a book called The Accidental Zucchini. But I give it a whole extra star because I love the octopus overalls and vegetable volcano.

[Serena]

Young students would love this alphabet book-there are so many colorful, fun illustrations to feast one's eyes on and each page reinforces emerging alphabet skills. A great addition to any elementary teacher's bookshelf.

[Shawna]

A really fun book. Great for teaching kids words to go with letters in the alphabet outside of apple, ball, cat.

[Heather]

This book presents the alphabet in an unusual way by ceating odd images like Kite Kazoos and Letter Ladders. The kids got a kick out of how silly the images were and it ws very entertaining to read.

[Desiree Rule]

This is a very fun alphabet book full off surprising illustrations.

[Paula]

Each letter of the alphabet is represented by an unusual combination of objects, such as "fork fence," "octopus overalls," and "umbrella underwear."

[Annette Taylor-james]

In this book the pictures are quite vibrant great for teaching ABC's it is a bit different but a great way to build vocabulary.

[Rani]

Fanciful alphabets going about in town.

[Caelyn]

I thought this would be about zucchini! Cute alphabet book, nothing amazing.