cover image Letters

Letters

John Burningham, Jez Alborough. Candlewick Press (MA), $5.99 (24pp) ISBN 978-0-7636-2046-2

A variety of titles help expand the understanding of youngest readers. Now in board book format, John Burningham's Colors, Letters, Opposites and Numbers, first published in 1985, explore the basics with playful ink and pencil illustrations. In Colors, he demonstrates ""purple"" with a boy at sunset swallowing an entire bunch of grapes; for ""brown,"" a boy bathes a hippo. ""G"" for ""goat"" finds a boy butted into the air by a goat slyly glancing at readers in Letters. Numbers counts a growing number of children playing in a tree until they reach 10; in the final, numberless spreads, a tiger climbs the trunk and scatters the 10 playmates.