L Is for Lone Star: A Texas Alphabet

This is such a wonderful book! I commend the author for filling it with all kinds of wonderful, educational, and entertaining facts about Texas. It is a great teaching tool and I would recommend it for the classroom as well. Each letter is presented in verse, which children AND adults retain much easier. Being a proud Texan already, this book helped many elements of our wonderful state resurface in my memory as well as teaching me a few new things to additionally be proud of. If I was a teacher, I would want this entire series in my classroom. I give 5 LONE STARS to the author and illustrator!

I am going to use this next year with my students. They will then make a Texas ABC book of their own. I love it!

This book is part of Sleeping Bear Press' State Alphabet series. Now, some of these books need some liberal stretching to get 26 verses of relevant information. Not this one, though. We're talking Texas here. If there's one state that could easily fill an ABC book, it's the Lone Star State. Carol Crane has done a very nice job selecting a wide range of Texas locations, events, and people to use in this book. Besides the usual suspects, such as the Alamo, the book mentions Scott Joplin, armadillos, Quanah Parker, Spindletop, Dr. Pepper, and, of course, bluebonnets.The book's layout, like that of the others in this series, features a very interesting two-tiered system. The main flow of the book is carried by a series of 4-line verses, one per letter. This portion is suitable for reading to pre-readers. Along the sides of each page, relevant factoids are given, further illuminating the main verse. This makes the book hold appeal for older readers, probably even up to 4th or 5th graders.Alan Stacy's well-drawn illustrations bring the subjects to life, especially for younger readers. I found this book to be a great way to deliver a working knowledge of Texas. Highly Recommended.