The Alphabet Thief

Starred review from January 9, 2017
Richardson and Bikadoroff reveal just how important letters are as the eponymous Alphabet Thief—who looks one part witch, one part rogue musketeer—goes on a crime spree, stealing one letter at a time. The result: madcap linguistic chaos, which Richardson describes with glee in rhymes that never take a false step: “The Alphabet Thief stole all of the I’s./ The maid was made mad in a glance./ And artists at easels would rather have measles./ Than find that their paints were now pants.” Bikadoroff’s airy ink-and-watercolor portraits are just as much fun, and the book’s small trim size and big sense of fun make it a smart pick for language lovers of any age. Ages 5–9.

December 1, 2016
In rhyming text, this nontraditional alphabet book playfully depicts a thief in the act of stealing the letters of the alphabet from A to Z. "The Alphabet Thief stole all of the A's, / And all of the coats became cots. / All of the fairs were turned into firs, / And all of the boats became bots." The verse never falters as the thief makes her way through the alphabet. Clever handling of the letter Q pairs it with U, turning "queasy" into "easy" and "squash" into "sash." What the black-cloaked thief doesn't see is that she is being followed by the narrator, a red-haired, white sleuth in beret and ponytail with a dog sidekick. Can they stop this terrible thief? Of course. The gumshoe takes all the Y's and Z's, turns them into slingshots and "ammo" and fires them at the thief, who promptly falls asleep. The ink-and-watercolor illustrations share space with the text in energetically varied layouts, the diminutive trim reminiscent of the old Nutshell Library books. The ending poses a small problem for libraries by addressing readers: "And who was the hero who saved the day? / It was me! You can write my name here." While the larger format of the similarly themed Take Away the A, by Michael Escoffier and Kris Di Giacomo (2014), is more suitable for group sharing, this sneaky romp will do well one-on-one. (Picture book. 5-8)

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January 1, 2017

K-Gr 2-The Alphabet Thief steals each letter of the alphabet, creating linguistic chaos. Can she be stopped? Not until she steals A's through Z's in the most predictable order. This clever story shows readers the result of verbal irony in its images again and again. Playful illustrations provide concrete examples, portraying baths as bats, poets as pets, horses as hoses, squashes as sashes, and many other silly transmutations. As a read-aloud, this rhyming tale is bound to lead to creative conversation about the textual and illustrative depictions of odd things left in odd situations as letters disappear from their words. Readers may be tempted to try their own letter thieving, dropping letters from words to make other recognizable words. VERDICT Sure to delight wordsmiths of all ages. A fun read-aloud that lends itself to curricular application.-Lindsay Persohn, University of South Florida, Tampa

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2017
Grades 1-3 The Alphabet Thief was daring and smart. So begins this whimsical rhyming book about a stealthy bandit who steals letter after letter, from A to Z. All over the world her crime spree causes havoc, as she turns boats into bots, bowls into owls, a chair into hair. It's up to the young, ponytailed, and bespectacled narrator to save the day just before the Alphabet Thief absconds with the Y's and Z's. This slim book features one letter per page with occasional breaks to lament the unstoppable robber. The editorial-cartoonlike ink-and-watercolor illustrations provide visual context and humor. The presence of sophisticated vocabulary and conceptsfishermen's pikes that turn into pies, a pirate that becomes irate, a quark that becomes an arkmake this a book for sharing, rather than independent reading. Occasionally the confining rhyme scheme seems forced, and purloined letters inexplicably reappear, but overall the text will inspire a passion for humorous wordplay. A similar conceit appears in Michael Escoffier's Take Away the A (2014), which will pair well for the younger set.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2017
Rhyming, dactyl-filled verses describe a thief who wreaks havoc as she steals letter after letter, turning coats to cots, bowls to owls, and so on. While many of the thirty-two quatrains are well crafted, others use contorted syntax and arcane vocabulary in an effort to maintain the conceit through the entire alphabet. Humorous line and wash illustrations clarify the sometimes-complicated plot.

(Copyright 2017 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)