Once Upon An Alphabet!

Short stories for all the letters.

Radhika Ghosh
2 min readJul 7, 2024
Source

Alphabets make words, words make sentences and sentences make stories. But when you have a book by Oliver Jeffers, you know it has to be something special and glorious.

Introducing Once Upon An Alphabet, an irresistibly unique book that comprises twenty-six short stories starring the letters in the English alphabet— each with its own personality. From A-Z, the entertaining tales of the letters take us on a delightful journey where we almost start believing that each letter is a character made up of flesh and blood and bones.

Published by HarperCollins, the book is funny, silly, entertaining, engaging and perfect for young readers who want stories full of action and pictures that make them laugh out loud. With intelligent wordplay, interesting twists at the end of the stories and fascinating portrayals of every letter as an unforgettable character — the book is an amazing read from start to finish.

The book celebrates the letters in the English alphabet that form the backbone of every story that has been ever written in the history of mankind. Employing his iconic style both in prose and through the artwork, this picture book seems like an open letter to the alphabet, acknowledging their silent role in narrating stories that constantly move hearts and change lives.

The book breaks cliches and orthodox ideas — as “A” doesn’t stand for “apple” and “B” has nothing to do with a “ball”. Rather, they are treated as personalities having specific quirks creating humourous tales.

What makes this picture book stand out in a crowd is that the stories (which may seem to be humourous and quirky on the superficial level) have deeper and layered meanings and even hold the potential to become full-length picture books. No wonder, Jeffers went on to create the classics including The Day the Crayons Quit and How to Catch A Star.

Surprising, funny and full of surprises (both happy and sad), this book has revolutionised the genre of picture books and has emphasised the fact that books for young readers should be full of interesting characters and engaging plots, rather than sources of dry didactism.

So, grab your copy today and get ready to laugh, think and wonder!

HarperCollins Publishers
Waterstones
Amazon

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