Alpha Beta Chowder

by Jeanne Steig

A clever collection of illustrated letter poems offers lots of alphabet fun as we meet the hag with the heebie-jeebies, listen to Carrotina play her concertina, and much more. Reprint.

Genres: Picture Books, Poetry, Childrens

48 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

Reviews

[Shakera]

This ABC poem book was clever, witty, and funny. It introduces new words to the reader with pronouncing them adding extra fun.

[Sarah]

Loved it! So funny and witty and clever.

[Chris]

Lots of fun vocabulary. Loved the rhymes: bric-a-brac with ipecac and offish with crawfish. Genius.

[James Myers]

Loved it

[Mary]

Two very talented authors with a twisted sense of humor. The book appealed to my older elementary readers.

[Sarah G]

Rounded up for illustrations.

[Sarah Seasor]

The book "Alpha Beta Chowder" by Jeanne Steig with illustrations by William Steig is a alphabet poetry book. There are 26 letters that have their own poem themed around that tells a story, such as "Bellicose Brigand vs. Belligerent Bear" and "Shipwrecked Sailors Salvage Stilton." This book uses a lot of unique and complex words which make the book more entertaining to read aloud and help students expand their vocabulary. Children would not be able to recognize words such as "brigand", but the picture shown with the text shows a pirate, so students are able to make the connection that a brigand is someone with similar qualities, like a robber. The illustrations in this book appear to be created with pastel watercolors outlined in black which makes the book feel a bit dated. I thought the pictures correlated well with the different stories and acted as good clues that could help children learn what the difficult words that they do not recognize mean. I would use this book with my students to help them with the alphabet and to improve their overall vocabulary. This book would be good to use for the 5-8 years old.

[Becky B]

An A-Z book of poetry with a different poem devoted to and fully saturated with each letter.

The vocabulary used in this poetry collection is quite high. Have a dictionary on hand when reading it with kids. Even those with the highest reading levels will probably run into a new word (dirndl) or five. (How about cadenza, credenza, brigand, ipecac, or irascibility? And there's more where those came from.) All of the poems are rhyming, but they do take different forms. And if you're covering alliteration or consonance, you could definitely use this for examples. Jeanne Steig packed as many appearances of the letter emphasized in each poem as possible (so some of them also end up being tongue twisters). Every once in a while a poem has a slightly darker humor (like the one for R about a Western gun duel) so you might want to screen these before reading them to little kids. I think the whole thing is best suited to a middle grade audience.

Notes on content: No language or sexual issues. There is a poem about a Western gun duel that results in a death, and another about a shipwreck which only has two survivors. No gory pictures, but fatalities are mentioned.

[Lorraine Robinson]

This book is a creative example of an alphabet book. It uses each letter in the alphabet to write poems using words starting with the letter. Can be used as a work station for children having trouble with letter recognition. I would have them read the poems of the letters they are struggling to distinguish, and then they can create their own poems.

[Nancy]

An amusing ABC book with poems and accompanying illustrations for each letter of the alphabet such as this poem for ‘L’:
“Lovey Dovey”
A lunatic living in Lvov
Looked long at a lone turtledovel.
“Though limp and lackluster,
She’s no feather duster,”
Crowed he. “La-di-da, I’m in love!”

[Marilynn Shea]

fun book.. saw his work at Norman Rockwell Gallery

[Jenny]

This is quite the treasure trove for word lovers.