John Burningham's ABC

by John Burningham

With its board book format and large size, John Burningham's ABC makes an ideal introduction to the alphabet for inquisitive toddlers. Each letter is given a single bold image in the author's inimitable style.

Genres: Picture Books

Hardcover

First published April 28, 1987

About the author

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bur...

Married to Helen Oxenbury They have one son and two daughters.

John Burningham was born in 1936 in Farnham, Surrey, and attended the alternative school, Summerhill. In 1954 he spent two years travelling through Italy, Yugoslavia and Israel, working at a variety of jobs.

From 1956-1959, he studied at the Central School of Art, after which he designed posters for London Transport and the British Transport Commission. He also spent a year on an animated puppet film in the Middle East. He then became a writer and illustrator of children's books, his first book, Borka: The Adventures of a Goose With No Feathers (1963) winning the Kate Greenaway Medal in 1963, an achievement he repeated with Mr Gumpy's Outing (1970).

Since then, he has written and illustrated many children's books. He is also a freelance designer of murals, exhibitions models, magazine illustrations and advertisements.

Reviews

[Shanna Gonzalez · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very nice ABC board book for introducing letters and associated objects to toddlers, in the traditional "A-apple, B-birds" format. The pictures are imaginative and amusing, making this one of the better examples of alphabet board books. This is good for introducing toddlers to the shapes and names of the letters, and beginning to introduce the concept of letter-and-object correspondence.

[Janet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Copyrighted 1985 with the ISBN 0517559609. When entering this number in the Goodreads search one is let to this title which is obviously not the correct one. The summary given does not match the title, John Burningham’s a b c which I just finished reading and am holding in my hand. There is no yacht for y, but a yak, there is no apple for a, there is an alligator.

This is a delightful abc title with a little fellow wearing a yellow hat encountering various objects, including animals, musical instruments, and a few people. I especially liked the illustrations of the bouquet of flowers, and the last one z is for zebra where the young boy is showing his striped socks to the zebra.

Since encountering John Burningham’s stories and artistic style in the title Mr. Gumpy’s Outing I have been a fan. In all the intervening years I have not discovered his story or artistic style from any other author/artist. And I love that bit of English humor that comes through in his illustrations.

[Janet · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have always loved the work of the late English children’ book author and illustrator. In viewing this 1985 copyright title I was reminded why. Burningham’s illustrations are very comprehendable to children and there is always an understated element of humor with the illustrations. In this ABC title it occurred with the illustration of z for zebra as the little boy included with all the letter illustrations is showing the stripped zebra his stripped socks. I personally also enjoyed the f illustration which shows the young boy holding a bouquet of pastel flowers.
Try to locate some of his titles as young children will enjoy them.
This is NOT the Board book edition, but the original picture book edition.

[Amanda Schwind · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have seen much better ABC books... This one really didn't catch my attention.

[Bree · Rating 1 out of 5]

Notes:
mostly pictures of a boy interacting with animals -- pushing an alligator in a stroller, riding a hippo...

[Sophia Davanzo]

“ABC” by John Burningham; published by Crown Publishers, Inc.; New York; copyright 1964

Awards the book has received: This book has not received any awards.

Appropriate grade level(s): Preschool and kindergarten are best for this book.

Summary: This book goes through every letter of the alphabet. Each letter is associated with a word relevant to children. On the left side of the book the letter is presented in both a capital and lower-case letter as well as the word. The right side of the book has a picture of the word.

Review: I like that this book represents both a capital and a lower-case letter to show students how it will be represented. I think it is a great idea to put both a picture and the word written out. The pictures in the book are relatable to the children and beautifully illustrated.

Uses in the classroom:
-As a class, we will make a new list of words for each letter. They must be different from the ones in the book we read.
-Students will be split up into groups and have separate times that they can do an alphabet scavenger hunt around the school (with a TA). Students will have ten minutes to find as many words that start with each letter of the alphabet as they can. Whichever group gets the most words will receive a prize.