ABC, 123; it's as easy as it can be

In about 24 hours, I'm going to be leaving bloggyland for just over two weeks. Westward ho to see family and to binge on theatre. Promise me you won't write anything interesting while I'm gone, 'kay?

To keep you occupied in the meantime, here is my list of 26-ish (ok, 32) great alphabet books and 10-ish (19, actually) fun counting books. I'll put a link to this post up on my sidebar along with Miss M's two top 100 book lists so that you can easily find them all on your next trip to the library. I had planned to annotate these lists but, duh, I'm traveling half-way cross-country in 24 hours with 1 two year old, 1 frazzled director/husband, 6 actors, 1 car seat, many snacks and various set pieces. Strategic luggage planning NOT critical annotation is my current top priority. And now, the lists:

ABeCedaria should be a magic word

The Adventures of an Apple Pie who was Cut to Pieces and Eaten by Twenty Six Young Ladies and Gentlemen with whom all little people ought to be acquainted. Dover, 1973. Facsimile ed of that published by George Burgess, New York: 1835

Anno, Mitsumasa. Anno's Alphabet: An Adventure in Imagination. Harper: 1975

Azarian, Mary. A Farmer's Alphabet. Godine: 1981

Blake, Quentin. Quentin Blake's ABC. Knopf: 1989

Coletta, Hallie and Irene. From A to Z. Prentice-Hall: 1979

Coudrille, Jonathon. A Beastly Collection. Frederick Warne: 1974

Edens, Cooper. The Glorious ABC. Atheneum: 1990

Edwards, Wallace. Alphabeasts. Kids Can: 2002

Eichenberg, Fritz. Ape in a Cape: An Alphabet of Odd Animals. Harcourt: 1952

Falls, C. B. ABC Book. Doubleday: 1923

Fleming, Denise. Alphabet Under Construction. Holt: 2002

Greenaway, Kate. A Apple Pie. Castle: 1979 (1886)

Grover, Max. The Accidental Zucchini: An Unexpected Alphabet. Harcourt: 1993

Harrison, Ted. A Northern Alphabet. Tundra. 1982

Johnson, Philip and David Peacock. The Great Canadian Alphabet. Hounslow: 1983

Johnson, Stephen T. Alphabet City. Penguin: 1995

Kipling, John Lockwood. A Kipling ABC. Macmillan: 1979 (1902)

Lalicki, Barbara and Margot Tomes. If there were Dreams to Sell. Lothrop: 1984

Lear, Edward. A Nonsense Alphabet. Bloomsbury: 1988 (1862)

Major, Kevin. Eh? To Zed: A Canadian Abecedarium. Red Deer Press: 2000 (read it out loud; the fun is in the words on the tongue.)

McDonnell, Flora. Flora McDonnell's ABC. Candlewick: 1997

Moore, Yvette and Jo Bannatyne-Cugnet. A Prairie Alphabet. Tundra: 1992

Nicholson, William. An Alphabet. William Heinemann: 1975 (1898)

Roache, Gordon. A Halifax ABC. Tundra: 1987

Rubin, Cynthia Elyce. ABC Americana from the National Gallery of Art. Harcourt: 1989

Tallon, Robet. Rotten Kidphabets. Holt, Rhinehart & Winston: 1975

Tarlow, Nora. An Easter Alphabet. Putnam: 1991

Thornhill, Jan. A Wildlife ABC: A Nature Alphabet. Greey de Pencier: 1988

Van Allsburg, Chris. The Z was Zapped. Houghton Mifflin: 1987

Wormell, Christopher. An Alphabet of Animals. Collins: 1990

AND if you don't know about Dutch's alphabet books over at Sweet Juniper, get your mouse hand in gear and check them out. I was hoping to get them both printed up as books for Miss M for Christmas but I don't know if Dutch still has the high-end files available to allow this to happen. I'll have to look into this all when I get back from vacation and when I start thinking forward to Christmas.

One, two, three four, can I have a little more?

Anno, Mitsumasa. Anno’s Counting Book. Crowell: 1975

Argent, Rod Trince and Kerry. One Woolly Wombat. Omnibus: 1982

Bang, Molly. Ten, Nine, Eight. Greenwillow: 1983

Burmingham, John. Just Cats. Viking Press: 1983

Burton, Katherine. One Gray Mouse. Kids Can: 1995.

Crossley Holland, Kevin. Under the Sun and Over the Moon. Orchard: 1989

Ehlert, Lois. Fish Eyes: A Book You Can Count On. Harcourt: 1990

Friskey, Margaret. Chicken Little: Count-to-ten. Children’s Press: 1946

Gregoire, Caroline. Counting with Apollo. Kane Miller: 2004

Hepworth, Cathy. Antics! Putnam: 1992

Heyboer O’Keefe, Susan. One Hungry Monster. Little Brown, 1989

Lofgren, Ulf. One-Two-Three. Addison-Wesley: 1973. Originally published in Stockholm, 1970

MacCarthy, Patricia. Ocean Parade. Dial: 1990

McGuire, Richard. The Orange Book. Rizzoli: 1992

Morales, Yuyi. Just a Minute: A Trickster Tale and Counting Book. Raincoast: 2003

Moss, Lloyd. Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin. Simon and Schuster: 1995

Radunsky, Vladimir. 10 (ten). Viking: 2002. (ok, so it's not really a counting book but it is just plain fun.)

Sendak, Maurice. One Was Johnny: A Counting Book. Harper and Row: 1962

Sis, Peter. Going Up! Greenwillow: 1989

There you have it. The age ranges for these books vary quite a bit and some of them are quite old. I just happen to like them all. As always, if you want to add to the list of recommendations, feel free to fill the comments section. Oh, and if you are going to put up your kitsch photos, make sure I know about that too so I can add the links when I get back.

Enjoy the rest of your summer.

Cue silence.