Alphabet Street by Jonathan Emmett and Ingela P Arrhenius

We love the way that Alphabet Street introduces children to the alphabet using colourful characters and rhymes.The sturdy lift the flap book folds out into a fabulous play scene, it really makes learning the alphabet a fun and interactive experience.

Starting with Alfie’s Bakery we travel all the way along Alphabet Street until we get to Yackety Zack’s Beauty Salon. Each page introduces two letters on a two storey building which has two flaps to lift. We had fun lifting the flaps to see which characters were inside and what they were doing.

The rhymes are short, simple and easy to read and each featured letter is shown in bold, both in upper and lower case.

Ingela’s illustrations are colourful and busy. Children are introduced to a range of animals which include elephants, giraffes and bears but also more unusual animals such as quails, yaks and an aardvark. The animals are engaged in a variety of activities including baking, painting, sleeping and gardening. Some are yawning, laughing and jumping and several are doing chores!

Alphabet Street is great for developing speaking and listening skills. Once you’ve read the story you can fold the frieze out, talk about what is happening in the street then turn over and spot the characters on the play scene at the back.

There is so much potential for learning in this book and not only for younger children who are learning the alphabet and developing their vocabulary. Alphabet Street would also be a great book to use to help older children identify nouns and adverbs, maybe they could write their own alphabet rhymes for a class book.

Alphabet Street adds a playful element to reading and learning the alphabet and we love the originality of the format. My daughter’s reaction to the book – “This book is cool!”

Age Range: 3 +

Author: Jonathan Emmett / Illustrator: Ingela P Arrhenius

Thank you Nosy Crow for sending Alphabet Street. Interactive books like this make learning fun 🙂