Alphabet Book Discussion Video

This forty-minute video goes over a lot of the material our text covers in the sections about Alphabet Books, Chapbooks, and Primers.

The video includes a commentary on a series of images taken in the main from Alphabet Books with an emphasis in the end on a modern Alphabet Book, Gone Wild, a book about endangered species throughout the world.

I hope that this short discussion helps you, for I suggest ways in which modern alphabet books borrow from devices utilized in traditional alphabet books.  But many contemporary books such as the one featured in the video move in different directions.

Consider that all contemporary alphabet books make considered use of the techniques traditional alphabet books developed.  A contemporary alphabet such as the one discussed clearly talks about issues not addressed in a traditional alphabet book--you could argue for the book's laying a foundation for different kind of literacy.  Note, too, that early chapbooks contained alphabet books that addressed the natural world.

So new books most often build on old traditions, something to keep in mind as you think about your Alphabet Book Essay.