The Dangerous Alphabet is a new ABC book by Neil Gaiman, who according to the dust jacket, "hopes he got all the bugs out of the alphabet." Unfortunately, I don't think he has managed to debug this alphabet yet.
I love alphabet books. My son struggled to learn his alphabet because of a learning disability, and we read hundreds of alphabet books. Being an illustrator myself, I delight in finding well written, well illustrated children's books with new slants.
When I received this book, I was delighted by the Gorey-like illustrations. Odd, slightly creepy, marvelous pen and ink illustrations weave throughout the pages of the alphabet. Gris Grimly has a wonderful hand and slightly skewed sense of humor that makes for a masterful illustrator.
The writing by Neil Gaiman started off great. The rhyming structure was sound and the concept held promise. Although the words are way above the reading level of a beginning reader, I don't necessarily think that critically damages an alphabet book. I think that kids develop great vocabularies when they are exposed to advanced word lists as a matter of course.
The Dangerous Alphabet also breaks from the "A is for" structure on a number of pages. In some cases the letters substitute in for "names" of characters. In other cases he uses the letter as its homonym word, such as Y for Why. This makes the book extremely difficult for little kids to understand and undermines the value of the book as a classic ABC book. Although older kids will enjoy the differences.
On the page for "L" it says that "L is like 'eaven, their last destination." Perhaps my kids, my staff, and I are all a little slow, but we can't figure this one out. Assuming that 'eaven is heaven, we are not really sure how it is like "L." We have to assume that the line was supposed to be equivalent to "Hell is like heaven, their last destination." Although my daughter and I are still arguing about that one.
At the beginning of The Dangerous Alphabet, the author notes, "The alphabet, as given in this publication, is not to be relied upon and has a dangerous flaw that an eagle-eyed reader may be able to discern." Unfortunately, this author's ABC book has more than one flaw. Although I don't ascribe to the idea that children should be shielded from scary things, in the "Disney" mentality, this book strays too far afield to deliver on its promise of a unique and interesting ABC book that would work as an ABC book for kids 3 and up. Although it is enticing to adults, I'd have to raise the age group to seven or eight, and still list the book as problematic.
Warning - Although I normally love author and illustrator sites please be careful if your kids decide to research this duo. Neil Gaimen's website is great although somewhat quirky (no surprise there), at www.neilgaiman.com. Gris Grimley site, however, is NOT kid appropriate. It's called Mad Creator and although the site has a mature content warning on it, kids will normally ignore such warnings. Just be sure to keep an eye out for it and avoid it.
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