These ABCs Belong to Me!
Energetic and jazzy, the picture book These ABCs Belong to Me! subverts negativity with its curious, joyous reclamation of common terms.
Alicia McKenzie’s diverse picture book These ABCs Belong to Me! brings a new, joyous vocabulary into the educational ABC format.
Colors explode off the page in this ABCs picture book that pairs the letters of the alphabet with words and phrases like “clumsy,” “know-it-all,” and “zany.” These often negative words are accompanied by five-line, rhyming poems that both expand their definitions and reclaim them to instill new connotations. “Nosy” becomes a way of exploring curiosity in children, while “hyperactive” celebrates a child’s joy at movement. These maverick understandings are set off by illustrations of children engaging in activities that dovetail with the descriptions: A girl raises her hand in class against a background of mathematical formulas, a wolf howling in a thought bubble, and the letter under discussion, K.
There is an energetic, jazzy layout to the digital images on the page. The combination of bright colors and geometric lines and shapes generates an absorbing sense of movement and play. The happiness that is shown on the faces of children from all backgrounds is also incorporated into the colorful, active imagery and casts an uplifting mood over the entire book. Depicting children of different ethnicities, cultures, shapes, sizes, personalities, and passions (some play dress-up, others hide from lighting and thunder, eat with their families, or climb trees) also makes inclusion and community a cornerstone value of the book.
The engaging, rhyming descriptions of each word and phrase speak to the underlying emotions and tensions in each idea. “Worry wart,” for example, gives rise to a brief story of embracing feelings of anxiety and understanding that they are helpful and reasonable when concerning issues of safety. However, the complexity of the texts themselves and their small size and placement on the page make this a book tailored to more experienced readers. In addition, words like “e(X)tra,” which is corresponded to the letter X, do not always match the thematic and educational aims of the book.
A fun reappropriation of vocabulary that is used to limit children, the rhyming picture book These ABCs Belong to Me! demonstrates what kind, inclusive language looks like.
Reviewed by
Willem Marx
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the publisher will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
