“A” is for more than just Apple in this exuberant and interactive alphabet book from the creators of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.

“A is for Apple…” but what else does it stand for? There are Avalanches of things that start with “A”: Artichokes! Airplanes! Aliens! What about C? D? E, F, and G? There are Cans of things that start with C, Dozens of Ds, Endless Es, whole Flocks of Fs, and, you guessed it, Globs of Gs. No sir, this is not your typical alphabet book. Filled with clever alliteration and vibrant illustrations, readers can sleuth their way through this vocabulary-expanding picture book and just might find their vocabulary reaching…excessive…heights. What this alphabet book lacks in plot, it makes up for in energetic search-andfind illustrations—and hilarity. The Barretts explore the alphabet with one colorful, Chwast-like picture after another. For example, “Avalanches of As” shows a bunch of As (both lowercase and uppercase) consorting with a wild assortment of pictures of A words: apple, ant, airplane, addition, angel, artichoke, acorn, etc. This particular page’s illustrations are muted purples, pinks, and oranges; however, each letter of the alphabet gets its own color scheme, which adds to the high-energy feel. Every page follows the same pattern—Boatloads of Bs, Cans of Cs, Dozens of Ds, and so on. One test of an alphabet book is the letter Q. Here it’s “Quarts of Qs,” with quart containers containing some of the traditional Q words: quilt, quarterback, quack, quill, and question. Not bad, especially when the other pages tickle the funny bone with Umpteen Us or Endless Es (inspired by Escher, no less) and Gobs of Gs. The final page is made up of items found in the previous pages to go back and search for. Not many actual words appear in all (the pictures do most of the talking), but the book is lots of fun to pore over.