Alphabet City

Johnson, S. (1995). Alphabet City. Stephen Johnson. New York, NY: A Division of Penguin USA.
Brief Annotation: This alphabet book shows the alphabet through a series of pictures that have been taken throughout a city. In benches the author finds the letter “o”, and a garden is the letter “d”. You go from A-Z seeing these beautiful pictures that show how the letters of our language are all around us.

Genre: Picture book

Grade Level: Birth- Kindergarten

Readers who will like this: People who are learning the alphabet will enjoy this book. People who also enjoy photography will like it too! The pictures are beautiful and it’s fun to see where the letters will be in the different parts of the city.

Response/Rating (1-4): 3, I enjoyed this book a lot but I also think that it could have used some words as well as the pictures. It’s really a fun book and an easy read and could be beneficial for people who are learning the alphabet, but other than that it was not the coolest alphabet book I have seen.

One question you would ask before a read aloud: “ What types of letters can you find in our room right now?”

Reading Strategies Connection: For younger ages (preschoolers possibly) I would read this book to them and then have them sketch their own letters that they find in the classroom. I would use the “sketch to stretch” model from Ruth Yopp and Hallie Yopp (Yopp & Yopp, pg. 108).