THE MAGIC OF LETTERS
By Tony Johnston; Illustrated by Wendell Minor
Neal Porter/Holiday House

Publication Date: April 23, 2019
ISBN ( Hardcover ): 978-0-8234-4159-4
$18.99

From KIRKUS REVIEWS:
Journey through a land where words take flight and spark creativity.A fantastical bespectacled rabbit is readers’ guide into a top hat and through Johnston and Minor’s wonderland of words as they celebrate the power of language to instruct, inspire, and delight children. The journey, which begins and ends on the dust cover, is reminiscent of Lewis Carroll’s classic topsy-turvy adventure, complete with a rabbit magician whose adeptness with wordplay prompts it to take a bow at the end. “Letters hold POWER,” it says, before going on to celebrate “giggling words like flibbertigibbet. Yummy words like QUESADILLA [and] bewitching words like enchanted.” Put together, “they say what you need to tell somebody. ‘The flibbertigibbet ate an enchanted quesadilla,’ ” for instance. The illustrations, which range from a scene done in a collage style incorporating cutout words to a blue, fairy-filled dreamscape, capture the sense of wonder that the story wishes to covey. The design makes clever use of the double-page spread to convey a child’s joy at recognizing their name in print and the power of words to literally make imaginations soar. Given the sophistication of some of the words in the story, it is best read with slightly older kindergarteners. While the rabbit is firmly established in the narrative, the two children, one black and one white, who occasionally appear in the illustrations feel less connected to the text.

A charming ode to the lyricism of language. (Picture book. 4-8)


From PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Plenty of books celebrate the power and fun of words. Johnston and Minor, the team behind Cat, What Is That?, seek to remind readers that without letters, there wouldn’t be any words. Because letters can be arranged in seemingly endless combinations, everyone has a distinctive name—a point that one spread drives home in a dialogue balloon filled with line after line of names in a typographic celebration of individuality. … Minor’s sketchbook-style illustrations have an immediacy and energy that will make readers feel that they’re peering over his shoulder as the drawings take shape. Ages 4–8. (Apr.)



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