On Market Street

Both of my children adored this book, and I recently bought it for a great niece. The illustrations are detailed, fascinating and very lovely. The simple narrative unites the book and makes it more interesting than many alphabet books. One thing I especially appreciated is that the final illustration showing the main character leaving Market Street after shopping at every booth really *does* have one of all 26 items in it. Children notice things like that and mine were very happy that they could work through that last picture and find everything from A to Z in it!

I was quite surprised when I first opened this book. The title does not do justice to the fact that this is one of the best ABC books available. The illustrations are quite amazing, full of intricate details and laced with humor. My six year old already knows her ABCs well, but thoroughly enjoyed looking at this book and thought the illustrations were absurd and hilarious. Laughter rang from the back seat as she read. It goes beyond "A is for apple, D is for dog" and brings a fresh change of pace to ABC books bringing laughter and enjoyment to a child and awe and applause from a grown-up.

I am a student of West Virginia State College, currently taking a class on Children's Literature. Mr. Samples (A Wonderful Teacher) has instructed us to review a Caldecott Honor book and write our thoughts on it. I read this book and was very pleased to see that it was not only well illustrated and would be enjoyed by children of all ages, but was also a great ABC book. The rhyming of the beginning and ending would make this a good memorizing/practice book for younger children learning the ABC's and the illustrations are funny (using each item as the person's outfit) so that the child reading this would stay interested and learn with fun!! I definitely recommend this book to all parents and teachers who are teaching a child the ABC's!

Most alphabet books serve the purpose they were made for, to help children learn the ABC's, but are full of mediocrity. Some are just plain awful. However, ever now and again an alphabet book is discovered that is pure genius. ON MARKET STREET is such a book. Not only is the book a delight to read and look at, but it includes a slight lesson in giving as well. A young girl goes to market street and buys items that start with each letter of the alphabet. The vendors that sell these items are illustrated in the wares they sell. So the apple man is made of apples and the book lady is made of books, etc. The illustrations are full of imagination and help children associate letters with certain pictures. A delightful book that kids love having read to them.

Alphabet books are a dime a dozen, but very few succeed as well as this one. The plot is simple enough: a child goes to Market Street and buys one item for each letter of the alphabet. What makes this book so special are the ingenious illustrations. Each "merchant" on Market Street is beautifully constructed from the items that he/she is selling. So, for the letter A the first merchant is made out of apples, and for B the merchant is made out of books, and so forth. This makes the pictures not only interesting to look at (and they really are gorgeous), but helps develop sight vocabulary. This book is also a very quick read--you can zip right through it. In the crowded and mostly undistinguished field of alphabet books, On Market Street truly stands out!