Sources

Further Reading

To learn more about the history of alphabet books, please explore the sources below. They were used in creating this exhibit and offer a more in-depth examination of this topic.


Coats, Karen. “P is for Patriarchy.” Children’s Literature Association Quarterly, vol. 25, no. 2, 2000, pp. 88-97. Project Muse, https://muse.jhu.edu/article/249854.

Criscoe, Betty L. “A Pleasant Reminder: There is an Established Criteria for Writing Alphabet Books.” Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts, vol. 28, no. 4, 1988, pp. 232-234.

Ford, Jennifer. “A, B and (not) Seeing: Animals and other Ironies in Alphabet Books.” Oxford Literacy Review, vol. 41, no. 2, 2019, pp. 219-237. https://doi.org/10.3366/olr.2019.0280.

Mackey, Bonnie, and Hedy Schiller Watson. Alphabet Books: The K-12 Educators’ Power Tool. Libraries Unlimited, 2017.

Nodelman, Perry. “A is for … what? The function of alphabet books.” Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, vol. 1, no. 3, 2001, pp. 235-253. https://doi.org/10.1177/14687984010013001.

Rostankowski, Cynthia. C. “A Is for Aesthetics: Alphabet Books and the Development of the Aesthetic in Children. Journal of Aesthetic Education.” The Journal of Aesthetic Education, vol. 28, no. 3, 1994, pp. 117–127. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3333405.

Smolkin, Laura B., and David B. Yaden. “O Is for ‘Mouse’: First Encounters with the Alphabet Book.” Language Arts, vol. 69, no. 6, 1992, pp. 432–441. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41411623.